Weakness
by Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet
Summary: Ghosts are obsessive by nature, and therefore every ghost has a weakness, or a soft spot as they call it. Now, Danny's just beginning to find out about his...
1. Prologue

Weakness

Prologue:

An almost unnatural, but welcome calm had settled over Amity Park as the windless afternoon slowly faded to dusk, washing the streets in a beautiful amber color.

Samantha Manson sighed as she watched the sunset through the large glass window of the Karate place she and her friends had come to. Of course, she wouldn't admit this to anyone, but sunset was her favorite time of day. Not only did it signal the oncoming night that she felt most comfortable in, but it seemed to wrap everything that had happened that day in a nice package, and lock it away. It was like starting over again, in the most beautiful way possible. And despite what she told everyone around her, she really did love the colors.

After staring contentedly for several minutes, she pulled up the sleeve of her purple Gi, held together by a white belt, and checked her watch. Then she rolled her eyes and stalked up to the door at the back of the room with a "Boys" sign on it, and yelled loudly:

"Come on guys! It didn't even take ME this long to get ready!"

Before she'd even finished her sentence, a boy with fairly short, raven hair walked out with an apologetic look on his face.

"Sorry, Sam," he shrugged, "But I can't get Tuck to come out. Oh, and thanks for paying for the lessons by the way."

She shrugged and stepped past him so she stood in the now open doorway. "Consider it an early birthday present. Tucker!" She yelled again, "If you don't come out, I'm coming in…" She let the threat hang in the air, awaiting a response.

"You'd only like it if Danny were in here too!" A voice met her tone defiantly.

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" both of the teens at the door hollered.

"Fine," an African-American boy with a red beret stepped cautiously into view. "I take it back."

Sam lowered the fists she had inadvertently raised. "Good," she responded with a tight-lipped expression.

"Remind me why I'm here again?" The third member of their group joined them and they proceeded to one of the unoccupied corners of the classroom. "Danny's the super-hero." He shot a glance at the raven-haired boy, who returned the icy glare.

"We're here to support him," Sam said matter-of-factly, and turned to lean against the wall, crossing her arms to signify her now grumpy mood.

"That doesn't mean I have to like it," Tucker growled, holding out the corner of his white Gi like it had suddenly turned into something dead and rotting.

Danny simply sighed. "Tucker, you don't look any worse than I do on patrol."

"Thanks for the reassuring comment," Tucker responded dryly.

"Yeah, I—wait," Danny's look darkened. "Are you saying—" Fortunately for Tucker, a woman stepped from a side door, and walked to the front of the room. Most of the children that had been scattered around the room looked up as she asked everyone to line up.

She introduced herself as the usual teacher (with a name that Danny couldn't even remember, let alone pronounce), and bowed to them, instructing the students to bow back.

Danny took the opportunity to look around, and realized that they were the oldest people in the group…not only that, but most of the other kids probably hadn't graduated from elementary. He suddenly felt very awkward. Having the kid next to him--a freckle-faced, large boned boy with very large, menacing teeth that showed when he grinned--glare at him with a look that stated "you're lunch!" did not help.

"Did you hear that?" Tucker asked Danny who blinked and looked toward the front of the classroom only to see the teacher walk to the side.

"No, what happened?" Danny asked, a little embarrassed.

"She said that one of the older students would teach us today," he looked expectantly towards the door. Danny and Sam both followed suit, only to have their faces suddenly twist into horror as a large, blond boy walked out, and bowed to the teacher, and then walk to the front of the class.

"Tell me this isn't happening," Danny whispered in a pleading voice.

Sam sighed. "It is."

"What's Dash doing here?" Tucker hissed to both of them. The boy bowed to the class, and then noticed the three in the back.

"Fenton?" he suddenly smiled wickedly. "This is gonna be fun." Danny and Tucker exchanged glances with Sam, dreading what was to come.

Credits:

_Yo, Danny Fenton he was just 14,_

_When his parents built a very strange machine._

_It was designed to view a world unseen._

_He's gonna catch 'em all, 'cause he's Danny Phantom_

_When it didn't quite work, his folks, they just quit._

_But then Danny took a look inside of it._

_There was a great big flash, everything just changed,_

_His molecules got all rearranged._

_When he first woke up, he realized_

_He had snowy white hair, and glowy green eyes_

_He could walk through walls, disappear and fly_

_He was much more unique than the other guy_

_And it was then that he knew what he had to do,_

_He had to catch all the ghosts that were coming through._

_He's here to fight for ME and YOU! _

_He's gonna catch 'em all, 'cause he's Danny Phantom._

_He's gonna catch 'em all, 'cause he's Danny Phantom._

_He's gonna catch 'em all, 'cause he's Danny Phantom._

Title Card: photobucket. com/ albums/ v314/ Obi-quiet?action view¤t; WeaknessTitleCardDPbyObiquie .jpg (without spaces)

* * *

Yes, it is finally here! Bwahahahahaha! For those of you who are my faithful readers, thank you sooo much for coming back! And for those of you who are new, welcome:hug: I love making new friends. Hope you like the story! 


	2. The Twins

Wow, I didn't realize I'd get that kind of a response. Oo blink blink Thank you guys soo much! I really wish that I could responde here. I HATE this rule...and I don't use that word lightly. sigh Anywho, enjoy! I'll try to respond to you all personally, but I really don't have the time to answer everyone. I'm soo sorry...I still love your reviews!

* * *

Danny and Tucker walked down the fairly-crowded halls of Casper High the next morning, glaring at Sam as she joined them. She took in their appearance with a sigh. Danny had a few band-aids here and there, not to mention a poorly wrapped bandage around his head. Tucker wore a neck brace over his usual high-necked sweater, and a bandage around his arm. She knew that they were just exaggerating their wounds to get on her nerves, but it worked.

"Guys, I said I was sorry," she said, exasperation lacing her words. "You can take that stuff off now. You got a full apology from Dash last night for the…'accidents'." They continued to glare at her. She threw her hands in the air. "I was just trying to help!"

"Sam," Danny said as he reached up to undo the bandage, "I appreciate what you did. I really do. I just hate being beat up by that…that…" his eyes flashed green in anger.

Tucker's expression hardly softened. "I wasn't even supposed to be there," he pointed out.

"Boys," Sam muttered to herself, and hugged the backpack she wore over her stomach.

"Um," Danny noticed her strange fashion statement. "Why do you have your backpack on backwards?"

Her face suddenly went pale as she glanced around. "No reason," she said hurriedly. "Look, I—" A blue mist coming out of Danny's mouth caught her attention, and she stopped.

"Er…" Danny looked around, not seeing anywhere he could really go ghost. 'I'll be right back," he smiled and dashed down the hall towards the Boys Locker Room.

'Go get him, Danny," Sam said after him, half sarcastic, half supportive.

"Why do you always assume the ghost is a boy?" Tucker asked her, still in a bad mood. "It could be a girl you know." She rolled her eyes at his comment and walked past him a few steps. "Hey," Tucker noticed her leaving, "Ghosts have feelings too, y' know." She turned to retort, but her eyes widened a look of surprise crossed her face instead. He took note of her look, and turned to see what she had shocked her into not defending herself.

"Or," he squeaked, "it could be two girls!"

"Yep!" one of the two heavily tattooed ghosts that floated behind them smiled and waved before brushing her long, midnight-black hair behind her shoulder. "HI!" her grin widened.

Of course, that's when people decided to take notice of them.

"GHOSTS!" someone screamed, and almost that quickly, the hallway had emptied, the echoes of screaming children bouncing through the halls. Sam and Tucker stood, almost frozen while facing the two girls.

The second girl (who, except for the facial decorations and opposite-colored clothes, looked exactly like the first ghost) simply floated there, with an expression that could have been carved from stone. She didn't say a word as the first, dressed in a tan, one-shouldered jumpsuit over a black shirt, floated up to them. Meanwhile, behind both of them, Danny phased through the floor, ready to attack. He paused when the ghost spoke again.

"I'm Abby!" her grin never left her face, and it was starting to creep Sam out, while putting Tucker slightly more at ease. "This is my sister Ash, and—"

"Ashlynn," the second corrected in a stern tone.

"We're here to find the ghost boy," Abby continued as if the other hadn't spoken at all.

Tucker and Sam exchanged a glance.

"Er," Sam spoke up, "why?"

"Because," Abby said, still smiling, "we want to help him!" For several seconds, silence blanketed the hall, until Danny shook his head and floated forward.

"Woah, woah…" both girls jumped and turned around. A green spear appeared in Ashlynn's hands, but when she saw who was there, she relaxed a little. The weapon didn't disappear. "You want to help me fight other ghosts?" Danny's eyebrow rose in skepticism.

"Fight…" Abby said slowly.

"..Other Ghosts?" Ashlynn finished, looking at her twin. Suddenly, she broke into the first grin they'd seen on her. "I told you not to get your hopes up, Abby."

"Aw man," Abby replied, folding her arms in a pout.

Danny blinked for several seconds, before shaking his head. "What did you think I did?"

"Don't you remember us?" Abby asked, still pouting.

"Hortensia," Sam said suddenly.

"How do you remember a name like that?" Tucker asked.

Sam rolled her eyes. "The lady with the weird green plate things that trapped other ghosts."

"Right," Abby nodded, grinning again. Then she seemed to remember that she had been pouting, and reverted to doing so. Ashlynn rolled her eyes at her sister and for the first time, spoke directly to the trio.

"Yes, we had been captured by her."

"You see," Abby dropped the hurt look altogether, and put her hand on her hip as she continued. "Hortensia used to be our friend, but she decided that power was more important, and snuck up on us one night with one of those green traps."

"Abby…" Ashlynn turned to her sister, who either didn't hear or completely ignored her.

"But she rarely used us because she had to defeat whoever she used to have full control, and then their power became hers…but she never beat us—"

"Abby!" Ashlynn said, a little louder.

Again, Abby ignored her. "So we were always her strongest, but most unpredictable—"

"ABIGAIL!" The first girl stopped and looked at Ashlynn. "We don't need to go sprouting off our life story to every person or ghost we meet! That's what got us in trouble the last time!"

She turned to Danny with a frustrated sigh. "We thought that we could come help you, because you saved ghosts."

Danny, Sam and Tucker repeated those last words simultaneously. "Saved Ghosts?"

"Well you saved us, didn't you?" Abby looked inquisitively around at the humans and Danny's faces.

"Oh, er…right," Danny said. "I…er…"

"You didn't mean to, did you?" Ashlynn sighed and shook her head with a disappointed scowl.

"Then why did you?" Abby asked, for once her energetic voice quieted down.

Danny bit his lip. "Well, I didn't realize…I…" he sighed. "Look, she wanted to defeat me, and trap me too, but I don't think people or ghosts should be mindless slaves to anyone." He shuddered, thinking about the blur in his mind that he could barely remember during the time Freak Show had come to town. "I didn't mean to free you, but I'm not sorry I did. Okay?" Everyone in the hall blinked at him, and Abby's smile returned, as bright as ever.

"Good answer, cutie," she winked at him.

"Cutie!" Danny asked, inadvertently backing away as a blush crossed his cheeks. Tucker started laughing, Ashlynn slapped her forehead, and drug her hand down her face with a sigh, while Sam narrowed her eyes into a glare.

Suddenly, a red ectoplasmic shot flew by them, hitting Danny squarely in the chest.

"AAARG!" he screamed as his muscles tensed and pain shot through his body.

"It's Valerie!" Sam hissed.

"Duh!" Tucker replied.

"Danny, run!" Sam said, grabbing Tucker's arm and pulling him down a side hall. Danny nodded, and phased into the wall, followed by the two ghost girls. He could hear Valerie's frustrated scream as her quarry evaded her.

On the other side of the wall, Danny de-transformed, only to run into the two, surprised ghosts who had followed him.

"Oh…hi," he said, rubbing his neck. "Er…you guys don't seem to be that bad…and you really came here to help me, even if you were misinformed. Just don't scare anyone, or steal anything or whatever, and you can stay. Otherwise…"

"You'll come after us?" Ashlynn scoffed.

Abby shrugged. "We agree."

"Abby!" Ashlynn looked livid, but Abby only smiled.

"Let's get out of here before that ghost hunter comes!" With that she grabbed her sister's arm, and disappeared with one last giggle. "Later, cutie!"

He quickly hid the blush that reappeared on his face by turning to find Tucker and Sam. That's all he needed. Now a ghost had a crush on him too.


	3. Sam's Secret

Sorry it's taken as long as it has, but I finally have it up! I'm really glad that I was able to get it. :D Yay. Anywho, I'm sorry I can't respond to you guys, but thank you all for reading! I'm hoping to get more up faster and soon! So everyone cheer if you want more...; ahem

- - -

Tucker and Danny had already claimed a table when Sam entered the lunch room, looking around warily, later that day.

"I still can't believe she called you 'cutie'!" Tucker laughed to Danny. He rolled his eyes and ignored his friend, looking elsewhere only to see Sam slowly making her way over.

"Hey, Tuck," he elbowed the boy beside him none too softly.

"Ow!" Tucker yelped, and sent a glare Danny's way before turning to look at what he found so intriguing.

After surveying the scene, he shrugged his shoulders. "It's Sam. So what?"

"So look at the way she's walking…almost like she's carrying Lilith—"

"Don't tell me she got you started on that too!" Tucker accused, knowing full well that Sam still had "their" sack of flour from the Health project.

Danny turned to shoot his own glare. "Tucker…" he warned. For once, his friend took the hint, choosing instead to focus back on Sam.

"I wonder what she has in that backpack…" he wondered out loud, rubbing his chin thoughtfully before a malicious look entered his eyes. "Hey, Danny…" He tugged his friend's white shirt. "Why don't you find out?"

Danny, who had returned to watching his other friend, glanced over his shoulder questioningly. "How?" he asked. "She hasn't left it alone all day."

"Duh!" Tucker responded. Danny's eyes widened in realization before narrowing in protest.

"No way! I hardly ever use my powers to get things from jerks like Dash. I'm not gonna do that to one of my best friends!"

"Not gonna do what?" Sam asked as she took a seat across from the two boys. They stopped instantly and turned to face her with guilty expressions.

Tucker started to respond, but Danny cut him off. "Tuck wanted me to see what you were protecting," he muttered, throwing a glare in Tucker's direction that didn't even come close to matching the intensity of Sam's.

A cheesy, "oh, crap" smile appeared on the dark-skinned face as he recognized he'd been outnumbered. Instead of the berating he'd been expecting, though, Sam's expression faded, and she sighed, grabbing a seat.

"If you really want to know…it's my-" she paused and looked around suspiciously before leaning forward and whispering, "-my journal."

"Your journal!" Tucker hissed loudly as his expression returned to the wicked look he'd had before, trying to ignore Danny who spat out his food, stuttering.

"SHHHH!" Sam hissed, leaning over to hit his arm. He ducked, and when she missed, sent a daring look her way from his now awkward position halfway under the table.

Danny managed to wipe all of the food off of his chin before looking over at Sam, who still stood halfway, glaring at Tucker, who had hidden under the table with only his eyes peeking over. Suddenly, Danny's eyes glazed over, focusing on the Hispanic girl in a pink shirt, who stood behind Sam with a surprised look on her face.

The girl noticed his gaze, and waved her fingers at him before walking away. He blushed as Sam kicked Tucker, and sat down with a smug grin covering her face. About that time, both of the teenagers recognized Danny's expression.

Danny continued to stare in the popular girl's direction until a pale hand waved in front of his face.

"Earth to Danny…come in, please?" Sam's sarcastic voice broke through the haze that seemed to surround him whenever Paullina came near him. He blinked his eyes, and blushed harder, looking down at his food.

"Sorry, guys," he muttered. Sam said nothing and glared, while Tucker laughed out loud.

"So, how was Planet Paulina this time?" he asked.

Danny couldn't keep a smile from his face. "She waved at me."

"Oh, brother," Sam rolled her eyes. That's when Danny noticed the table in front of her sat empty.

"Aren't you going to eat, Sam?" he asked cautiously. Sam bit her lip and hugged her backpack tighter.

"I'm not very hungry," she mumbled, barely loud enough for her friends to hear.

"Why not?" Tucker asked, stuffing a good half of his hot dog into his mouth.

Sam shuddered in disgust at his display, and pointed to her backpack. "Because I have this here."

"Why is that so important?" Danny asked after swallowing his own mouthful.

"Do you know what I write in my journal?" she asked softly. Both boys shook their heads. She refrained from letting out a frustrated growl and leaned forward again. "Everything," she said simply.

Tucker and Danny exchanged glances, before returning their gaze to her.

Sam slapped a hand to her forehead and dragged it down her face. "Everything…as in anything that happens to me: including our little 'adventures' with Danny." From their expressions and now pale faces, she figured they got it this time.

"All of a sudden, I'm not hungry either," Danny said with slurred words, his face still in slight shock, and taking on the green tinge of sickness.

"Why do you even have that here?" Tucker asked, now whispering. Vaguely, Sam wondered why they hadn't just taken her word and shut up in the first place.

She sighed. "Because of the extra-credit assignment Techtslav gave us yesterday." From their blank expressions, she figured they hadn't been listening at the time. "The one on venting emotions?" Their expressions remained blank, and at this point, she just decided to give up. "Look, it's just for the class, okay?"

"Wait," Tucker held up his hand. "Did I just hear you right?"

"What?" Sam blinked, wondering how he could have missed anything.

"Did you just say you need extra credit?" A look of awe passed over her two friends' faces.

"Boys," Sam muttered to herself. "I did this in case I got sick or something. Then I wouldn't have to worry about catching up with the assignment as much."

"Oh," Danny said, looking down.

"I guess that makes sense," Tucker blinked and looked at Danny, who didn't seem to notice.

"Look," Sam got up, looking around again. "I'm going somewhere else. This room is too crowded."

"I'll come with you," Danny said hurriedly. "Just wait for me to dump my tray." He literally ran over to the garbage cans, then thrust his now empty tray on the nearby table, already covered in a mess of the serving dishes.

He reached Sam and Tucker only seconds later, and threw his own pack onto his back. "You coming, Tuck?" he asked.

The nerd shook his head. "And miss a meal? Are you crazy?"

"Don't call me crazy," Danny grumbled and started towards the door, with Sam in tow.

"Can we stop by my locker?" Sam asked once they'd reached the entry way.

"Um…sure," Danny said, glancing at his watch. They'd just started down the left hall when Danny slapped his head. "I left my homework in my locker. I'll meet you at your locker in, say, five minutes?"

"Sure," Sam nodded and watched him run in the opposite direction for a minute before turning around herself. "I feel safer already," she smiled to herself and continued down the hall.

- - -

Paullina watched the trio of losers gab for several minutes before Fenton rushed over to the garbage, and threw most of the food he'd received only minutes earlier into one of the large, black cans.

"Hey Star," she leaned over to her friend, "how often does a teenage boy miss a meal?" She didn't bother to emphasize her accent like she normally did when talking to a group. Star knew her better than that.

"Um," the blond girl blinked at her. "Never. Why?"

"Come on," she stood up, throwing her food into a nearby trash can, and leaving the tray on the table like she normally did. Why should she have to worry about icky things like taking that tray to the mess that usually piled up on the other side of the lunch room? "This will be fun," she grinned wickedly and started following the two black-haired teens out of the lunchroom. Star, Dash, and several football players caught her look, and followed with mischevious grimaces of their own.


	4. Danny's Secret

Okay, thank you everyone for commenting. And thanks to my new beta reader, I'm able to get this up quickly. :D Happiness! Feel loved. Very loved.

Oh, and as a minor note and warning, Danny is slightly out of character here for a reason.

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The halls stood mostly empty as Sam waved one last goodbye to Danny and then continued on to her locker, looking around to make sure no one was near.

With a satisfied smirk, she turned the knob that opened her locker, and took off one strap of her backpack, letting it hang to her side and out of the way as she reached inside the metal compartment, looking for a particular book for one of her classes later that day. She thought that she'd be able to feel if anyone got into her now open backpack, and that her journal remained safe... She was wrong.

She didn't see the Latino girl she'd missed in the lunchroom tip-toe up to her locker behind the door Sam held open, nor did she see or feel a hand reach in to grab the notebook whose small size set it apart from the other books residing in her black leather bookbag. As a matter of fact, she was completely oblivious to all of this until a voice behind her began speak.

"Dear Diary..."

Sam hadn't imagined any two words could make her that sick that fast. She felt the color drain from her face, and the butterflies she'd felt in her stomach all day quickly turned into whirling tornadoes. For a few moments she froze with wide eyes before turning and yelling the girl's name.

"PAULINA!"

She watched in horror as Paulina's good friend, a blond-haired girl named Star, ran up to the other girl and rested her hands on her knees, peering into the all too familiar, black and silver notebook.

"Today," Paulina continued, "we tested Danny's skills again. He's getting really good at most of them, although he still has problems with duplication."

"Duplication?" Star laughed. "He can't even add two and two?"

"And what kind of skills?" Paulina mocked.

Star just laughed shrilly. "That loser? No way I want to know!" She gave Paulina a high five as Sam felt her face go red, half from embarrassment and worry, and half from pure anger.

Before she knew what she was doing, she'd lunged forward, ready to tear the diary out of the other girl's hands if she had to. "GIVE IT BACK!" she screeched, panic now driving her without thinking. She couldn't see anything but her little black notebook...which is why she didn't duck the hand that grabbed her arm, stopping her progress abruptly.

"I think I want to hear this," Dash Baxter grinned, as she looked up, confused and bordering on desperate. She shouldn't have done this at all, she realized that now. They were Danny's secrets, not hers. She didn't have the right to take the chance with them.

"NO!" she said, trying unsuccessfully to keep the desperation out of her voice. Several kids who had just wandered into the hall noticed the struggle, and walked over curiously.

"His parents came up with some new gadget too," Paulina continued, her grin broadening, "and set it off while we were there. Sometimes I wonder if they even know the meaning of the word 'safety'. We barely made it out of there before the whole thing exploded in ectoplasmic energy. I'm surprised his parents weren't seriously hurt."

"Please!" Sam yelled, fighting tears. Was she going to be the downfall of Danny Phantom? After everything they'd been through, and all the times he'd saved the town, let alone his two best friends' lives, she couldn't bear the thought. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"

More than one person noticed her out-of-character screeching and struggling, yet no one offered a hand. Star and Paulina ignored her as the latter read on. "Of course, Danny was the closest next to them. The stupid idiot. He could have gotten himself killed! He grabbed our (Tuck's and mine) arms when he dove out of there, and literally flew up the stairs."

"Wait," Star interrupted. "Flew?" The small crowd that now surrounded them started to laugh.

"You think that your boyfriend can fly?" Paulina's malicious grin suddenly opened, and she joined the laughing crowd. Sam's face only burned hotter.

"Hey, Fenton!" Dash yelled. "If you can hear this, your girlfriend's been telling us how you're some kind of stupid wannabe superhero!"

Somewhere inside Sam, something snapped, and her desperation reached its limit. The adrenaline pumping through her body finally drove her enough to thrust forward, despite Dash's arm–causing him to jump back in surprise–and wrench the notebook out of the other girl's hands.

"All of you think you're so amazing," she hissed, her eyes flaring with anger. "You stupid, poser idiots who couldn't see anything in front of their own noses! None of you would be intelligent enough to recognize it if he were! You stupid, pathetic–" She was about to start in on a string of four-letter-words, when a new voice interrupted her.

"What's goin' on?" She turned to see an African-American girl with expensive-looking clothing push her way into the center of the steadily growing circle of highly amused students.

Paulina, who had recovered from her laughing fit when Sam had taken her journal back, shrugged and turned her back to walk out of the crowd, which melted before her like Moses parting the Red Sea.

"Miss Goth has just been telling us how 'super' her 'best friend' is," she said with a smirk as her friends followed her down the hall.

Her leaving seemed to give all the students permission to make their own exit as well, many still laughing at Sam's humiliation.

"You know," Valerie's voice had a mocking tone to it as she also turned to walk away, ready to leave Sam clutching her notebook for dear life in the middle of the hallway, "at least I don't have to pretend he's something he's not to like him."

If Sam had thought that she couldn't be pushed any further, she had been horribly mistaken. Her mouth seemed to move of its own accord as she ran over and grabbed the other's shirt, pulling the long-haired girl around to face her with a dangerous glare burning in her violet eyes.

"You hypocrite!" she growled. "How dare you criticize me on their word knowing very well what they're capable of! You can't even do anything or come to any true conclusion on your own! You have to rely on other people to supply you, and you do their dirty work! You'd take down anyone! No matter who or what they really are, for personal vengeance! Always shooting, and never questioning! Just like every other pathetic ghost-hunter. You of all people have the least amount of room to talk."

"How–?" Valerie's eyes grew wide, but Sam cut her off again, letting the other girl's shirt go, and stepping away like she'd suddenly turned into something disgusting.

"That's how I know that if you really knew him, you'd hate him too. You've already told us as much."

"I what?" Valerie went to grab Sam's arm when the Goth girl stopped suddenly, having come face to face with none other than Danny Fenton.

Looking back, Valerie couldn't remember anyone ever emanating a more hurt or dangerous aura than he did at that very moment. Realizing what was about to happen, she decided to make herself scarce and confront Sam about her confusing words later. She remained silent as she slipped around the corner, but was unable to hide a smirk. From the looks of it, Danny would be free for her to ask out whenever she wanted to in the near future.

The thought stopped her in her tracks. Who was she to be so happy about breaking up a friendship? Who did she think she was? She, who had been scorned by her so-called friends when things got a little harder in her life. With a sigh, she looked over her shoulder at the corner before moving on.

"Good luck," she whispered, not really knowing who she was saying it to, just knowing that they'd need it.

Meanwhile, Sam simply stood across from Danny, her mouth hanging open, and her eyes wide with fear and shock.

"Sam..." Danny shut his eyes, his normally light voice barely a whisper. "How could you?"

"Danny...I-I...Paulina took my journal and–"

He shook his head and stepped forward, cutting her off. "'None of you would be intelligent enough to recognize it if he were?'" His mouth set into a thin line and he locked eyes with her, trying, with little success, to control his temper. "That's how I know you'd hate him. You've already told us as much?' Cryptic, but it sounds an awful lot like a confession to me."

Sam was about to snap back, when she realized any anger that had driven her before had left her body hollow and empty when she'd seen the hurt in his eyes...the hurt she'd caused with her own careless words.

"Valerie's not an idiot, and she's gonna put two and two together eventually...especially now that you've given her more variables to add." He turned his back on her, with fists clenched at his side, shaking with fury. Vaguely, Sam remembered wondering when Danny had started to use such heightened language, but pushed the thought to the back of her mind almost as soon as she recognized it, slightly distracted with damage control.

"Danny–" she started again, stepping forward, but his words stopped her again.

"Sam," he growled, glancing over his shoulder with burning green eyes, "leave me alone." And with that, he walked away.

"But...Danny! Wait!" She stretched her arm out to touch him, but it fell right through his arm, as if it weren't there. "Danny, please!" she managed to get out, just before he disappeared around the corner.

The last time she called his name, Danny stopped out of her view, and took a deep breath, obviously struggling to maintain control. He clenched his eyes shut, counting to ten, before opening them and continuing down the hall. Neither of them could notice how his eyes suddenly faded from green to a deep red as he left her more alone than ever in the large, once again almost empty hallway, hugging her notebook close to her.

After a few minutes of staring after him in shock, tears came very suddenly to her eyes. Turning, she slammed her locker shut, grabbed her backpack and rushed out of the front doors of the school.


	5. Transformation

"Wait." Tucker's jaw dropped once Danny finished telling him what had happened. "Sam did what?"

Danny sighed in response, looking at his feet before answering. "I don't think anyone actually caught on…though Valarie did look at me funny."

"Brutal." Tucker shook his head. "I can't see her doing that."

"I know." Danny nodded. "But it happened, exactly like I told you. I can't believe she'd do that either, even if she was really upset."

"Upset?" Tucker raised an eyebrow. "Or totally ticked off. I've never seen Sam as mad as you said she was." Again, Danny sighed, this time refraining from response. "So," Tucker took a seat beside him. "How do you feel?"

Danny turned and blinked at him several times. "Huh?"

"How do you feel?" the dark-skinned boy repeated. "Every time I'm upset, my mom asks me how I feel."

"Tucker…" Danny warned.

"Come on, man," he shrugged. "It helps."

Danny's look hardened to a glare. "My best friend just betrayed me. How am I supposed to feel?"

"So y—" the other started, but a loud yelp cut him off.

"HELP! GHOST!" Both Danny and Tucker jumped up into a crouch, ready to spring into action. After a few seconds of searching, and Danny wondering why his ghost sense hadn't gone off, the same voice called out to them.

"Hey, Fenton-yata." Dash's words made both teens cringe as they turned to look at him and his football buddies, miming pain and agony at the opposite end of the gym. "You're a superhero. Come save us!"

Danny turned away with a set jaw, and glowing green eyes.

Paulina chimed in, and Danny felt his face go red as the rest of the kids in his class turned to stare at him. "You should save us before the Ghost Boy gets here and saves us instead! Not that you're anything compared to him." She and the group of girls huddled near the jocks burst into laughter.

Suddenly, the gym felt stifling and harsh, and Danny just had to get away. He elbowed Tucker and jerked his head towards the door. His friend nodded, and they started making their way over the bleachers.

"Now that's ironic," Tucker commented suddenly.

"What?" Danny asked, not really sure if he wanted to know.

"They want you to save them before you get here." The half-ghost couldn't help but growl, and for once, Tucker caught the hint. "Come on, man," he defended. "It's funny!"

They left the gym just as Dash started chanting "Fenton the Super Loser". At that point, Danny really didn't care if leaving got him a bad grade for the day; he just wanted out of there.

- - -

Later that night:

"So," Tucker's voice drifted through the phone receiver. "Whadja wanna do?"

"I don't know," Danny replied, still thoroughly depressed.

Tucker sighed. "You can't stay bummed forever, y' know," the African-American said matter-of-factly.

"Wanna bet?" Danny answered, hoping he didn't sound too harsh, and flopped onto his bed.

"Well, we could hang at my place," Tucker suggested. "I just got Doomed 3." Danny only grunted in response, so he continued. "Or we could head over to Geeks. I hear they have a Mystic card tournament going on." No response. "Or we could—"

Danny laid there, facedown on the bed, not really caring about anything, except for the fact that his now only friend was trying to help him out. The thought almost made him smile.

Almost.

"You there?" Tucker's voice cut through his thoughts. He sat up, about to answer...when a familiar cold feeling in the pit of his stomach suddenly appeared, working its way up his throat. He could see his next breath as clearly as if it were 30 below, and sighed.

"Tucker," he replied, unable even to get worked up over a ghost, but knowing he had to check it out, "I think we just got something to do."

On the other end of the line, he could just imagine Tuck blinking in surprise. "Like what?" he asked.

Danny tried unsuccessfully to force a laugh. "The kind where you bring your thermos, and follow the screams," he answered his friend sarcastically.

"Oh," Tucker said, then added almost as an afterthought, "You'll end up at the park again. You always do." Again, Danny almost smiled. Of course, if there was anyone in the world that could help him feel better, it was Tucker and his pathetic sense of humor. "I'll see ya there!" the other end chirped cheerfully before the phone clicked off.

Danny shook his head, and stuck the phone in his pocket before half-heartedly putting his hands in the air. "I'm goin' ghost," he mumbled. The two blue rings appeared, separating to leave behind an equally depressed Danny Phantom, with unusually dull green eyes. Without a word, he took his own thermos from under his pillow. He didn't look back as he phased through the wall and into the dark night that matched his own feelings so well.

He followed his ghost sense until he saw two figures exactly where Tucker had predicted: directly over the park. Several people who had seen them were fleeing the scene, screaming, as Danny floated towards them.

"Two of them," he commented. "I hope that—oh no." Suddenly, he knew exactly who they were, and just as suddenly, he wished he'd stayed home. The last thing he needed right now was more girls—especially if they weren't named Paulina, and were calling him "Cutie". For some reason, it really unnerved him. Maybe it was the fact that she was a ghost--although he wasn't sure why that should matter, because he was half ghost himself--but it just gave him the creeps.

An image of Box-Lunch flashed through his head, and he shuddered. "Definitely a 'NO'," he said under his breath, floating closer to the two, one of whom turned around and saw him.

Her face lit up immediately. "Hi, cutie!"

"Er…hi," Danny said as he flew in front of the two identical ghost girls, running a hand through his silvery hair. "I don't know why you want to stick around-"

"To be close to you, silly," Abigail giggled. Danny gulped, not sure whether to blush or roll his eyes. Ashlynn folded her arms, choosing the latter. Unfortunately, his face chose the former for him. He felt his cheeks go warm again.

"Abby, sister…dear," if the second ghost had sounded any more sarcastic, she'd have had to pay hazmat team to clean up the residue dripping from her words. 'Wait,' Danny thought, "they're systers? Well it would make sense.' "You need to be more reserved," she continued, and then turned to Danny. "And you told us we could stay." It took a lot of willpower for Danny to not cringe at her annoyed, monotone voice. He would have replied if Abby hadn't cut in, pouting.

"Ash, you're no fun." Ashlynn shook her head slowly as Abby turned back to Danny. "Besides, I'm much cuter than that Goth girl you hang out with, aren't I?"

Danny's head snapped up, with a pang of pain at the thought that Sam wouldn't come to back him up like normal. Only Tucker… He didn't know what he would do if his other friend somehow betrayed him too.

"I—" he started, but sudden dizziness flooded his senses. "Whoa." He blinked and tried to shake the fuzziness off, putting a hand to his head.

"You what?" Ashlynn snapped.

Danny rubbed his head for a minute before focusing on them again. "Oh, I…nothing."

"You sure?" Abby asked, looking at him questioningly.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he sighed. "Look, first, I'm not available, okay? I just don't want to deal with girls right now, ghost or not. Second, you guys are scaring people. So…could you…er…leave?" He hated sounding so weak, but he still wasn't convinced they were evil ghosts, although he didn't particularly want them to stick around, either.

Abigail's face lit up again, this time in realization. She almost looked like Christmas had come early. "They got in a fight!" she crowed.

Danny rolled his eyes. Was the ghost girl's laugh perpetual? Vaguely he wondered where that thought had come from, but again shook it off. He could worry about it later. "What makes you think that?" he asked before he'd thought about it.

"Where is she, then?" Abby looked around.

He gulped and shook his head, looking away. "I don't know," he muttered, feeling his jaw set. Glaring up at them, he added, "That might be relevant if–" He stopped. His head was swimming, and he found himself unable to focus on anything. "If–if we...were still best...Betrayal kind of..." Why couldn't he seem to finish his sentences?

"Are you okay?" Abby asked again, genuine concern now in her voice. Her twin simply raised her eyebrow in curiosity.

"I...I don't know," Danny grunted, and put his arms around his stomach, although he still felt no pain.

The sisters exchanged glances before turning their eyes back to him. With a wary fascination, they watched his aura fade to red, and two black streaks begin to zigzag through his now-drooping hair. The white belt around his waist disappeared, while everything else turned deep red.

"He's changing," the talkative ghost commented.

"No, really, Abby?" Ashlynn muttered to her sister, not taking her eyes off of the half-ghost. "This might be a good time to make an exit," she said, the green spear appearing in her hand. She moved in front of her sister, as if to shield her, holding the ectoplasmic staff in front her protectively. For once, Abby didn't argue, and they began to back away when a cold voice stopped them.

"Don't go." This came from the hunched-over form of the halfa. His voice seemed different...colder somehow. Uncaring, and hard...not at all like he had sounded before. A malicious grin spread across his face.

"First you want us to go, now you don't..." Abigail waved her hand in the air to mark her irritation, but it vanished instantly with a twinkle in her eye and her next remark. "I think I like the change." The boy looked up, and Abby gasped, while Ashlynn once again only raised an eyebrow. His vibrant eyes had turned a deep, blood red, now matching the trimmings of his suit, and the red circle in the center of his chest.

"Good," he grinned cruelly. "Let's go have some fun, shall we?"

* * *

If anyone hasn't seen pictures of Evil Danny before, let me know, and I"ll post some links in my next chapter. :D :hug: 


	6. What Haunts Their Dreams

Sorry it's been as long as it has guys, but I've been working hard, and I'm going to be able to finish Brainwashed in the next few days. Then (if people don't come after me with chainsaws too much) I can finish this one up too.

I LOVE reading your responses, especially the critical ones. Thank you, EVERYONE who's been reading this. :hug: More to come soon!

* * *

_Earlier that Day…_

The last place Sam wanted to be when she ran out of school was at home. She could see the concequences of her actions perfectly in her mind. Her mother would ask her what was wrong, while her father looked worried at her side. She'd explain the entire thing to them, and they'd go off on how bad an influence Danny was, and how she shouldn't hang around him. Apparently, they still hadn't gotten over the Circus Gothica incident.

_So, maybe_, she thought to herself in retrospect as her legs slowly moved her up the stone steps of her porch, _coming home for the day wasn't the best idea_. Frankly, though, she didn't know where else she could go at the moment. Any of the usual places she hung out when Danny and Tucker weren't around would either be on the lookout for kids skipping school, or they wouldn't be open for several more hours. "Nice going, Sam," she muttered to herself as she sneaked inside. Once safely through the door, in the shadows of the hallway, she quietly sought out the one person that she felt could help her: her Grandmother.

She found the old lady in the library, reading a romance novel in the large, faded red armchair that was the only place the Goth ever remembered her Grandmother being, besides seated atop her scooter. "Grandma..." she called softly. Immediately, the white-haired woman looked up, surprise showing plainly on her wrinkled face.

"Sam?" she asked curiously, glancing at the clock. "What's wrong, honey?"

Sam couldn't help the tears that came to her eyes. Without much thought, words started to pour out of her mouth, and she ended up explaining everything. When she finished, she found herself sitting next to her Grandmother, with her face buried in the old woman's thigh, wondering how the other could understand her through the sobs.

She didn't know how long she cried like that, although she suspected quite a while. Her grandmother said nothing for some time, stroking Sam's black hair calmingly. After what seemed like forever, she finally spoke.

"If this friendship means that much to you, Oobra," she began, causing Sam to look up at her wrinkled face. She didn't know what 'Oobra' meant, or why her grandmother called her that, but it always seemed to calm her enough to listen. "Then you need to talk to him. Save it before it's too late."

She couldn't help but snort. "He's a boy, Grandma," she muttered bitterly. "They never talk about anything."

Her Grandmother smiled at the comment, but shook her head. "I'm sure he'll listen to you," she insisted quietly. Sam simply sighed. The way Danny had looked at her, she doubted it. "And if he doesn't," she heard her Grandmother continue, "then he's probably not the best friend for you." The truth of the old woman's words sent Sam into tears all over again, and again she cried for what seemed like days.

She'd just started to calm down again when her Mother walked in. "Sam?" she looked at her daughter, obviously surprised to see her. "Honey, what's wrong?"

"Um…I…" she muttered, wiping the tears away with her hands, knowing her face undoubtedly looked as red and puffy as it felt.

"She was telling me a story," her grandmother cut in. "A very sad story," she added with a wink only Sam could see. Sam couldn't help but smile gratefully while Mrs. Manson tapped her chin.

"Oh," the Red-haired woman said simply. "I see," she glanced at the Rolex beneath the gloves she always wore. "Why are you home so early?" she asked. Sam glanced at her own black watch, seeing that school had let out only a few minutes before. That surprised her. How long had she been crying?

"I…er…ran home. I had to tell Grandma that story," she said hurriedly. Well, it was true in a sense.

"Oh," her mother repeated, glancing at the pair suspiciously. "Are you sure nothing's wrong?"

"I'm going to go hang out at the Nasty Burger," Sam replied hurriedly. "Don't worry about me, I'll be home before curfew. Love you!" she said as she ran out of the room. At the door, she paused for a moment behind her mother and shot the white-haired woman in the chair a warm smile. "Thanks Grandma," she nodded before she disappeared down the hallway.

- - -

_Later that Evening..._

Tucker ran down the last block before the park, panting and wondering how this would turn out without Sam. She'd always been there before, at most a phone call away. Somehow, this seemed empty without her. He hadn't dared call her, half hoping that Danny would get over the whole thing and do it himself. Something told him that they'd have to work this out, just the two of them.

The thought didn't exactly make him happy. Lately he'd been feeling a bit left out with their little crush thing going on, although neither would admit it. It bugged him that they wouldn't just swallow their pride and come out and say it, or do something about it. If they kept up like this, they'd never end up together…not that he really cared either way. He just wanted his friends to be happy…those times that he didn't want to whack them upside the head for being idiots.

He puffed his way through the park, wishing that he exercised more, and that he'd been intelligent enough to leave some of his "geek gear" at home for once. Pausing, he looked around to see three figures floating in the distance. He headed toward them. "I'm comin', man," he huffed, knowing full well that they couldn't hear his weak voice. "Okay," he grumbled. "That's it. I AM going to start working out. I wonder if a buff nerd would attract more girls?" he wondered aloud, slowing to a walk to approach the three figures cautiously. Muttered voices started to reach him, although he couldn't make out the words. He pulled out his thermos, ready to jump out if anything happened to Danny.

Suddenly, Danny doubled over, as if in pain, spurring his best friend to sprint forward, thermos ready. He'd almost reached them when he realized Danny's suit had changed, along with his hair. The African-American suddenly stopped, his face twisting in horror and realization.

"Danny?" he whispered to himself, diving out of sight behind a bush. "Definitely not good!" He grabbed his phone and pushed the speed dial. Fight or not, Sam needed to know about this, and hopefully help him get the real Danny back. "How did that happen?" he asked himself, peering around. As far as he knew, Danny hadn't received anything new that would have…brought out this side of him.

"Come on Sam," he hissed to the phone after the fifth ring, but to no avail. "Pick up," he pleaded, counting the rings. "6…7…8…SAM!" It took all his self control not to yell at the phone and alert Danny to his presence. That was the last thing he wanted.

He saw the newly transformed half-ghost turn to the twin girls, who now regarded him warily. "Let's go have some fun, shall we?" Tucker held his breath as the two looked at each other, and then turned back to him.

"Okay!" the one on the right said happily. The one on the left didn't look nearly as pleased, but kept her mouth closed.

"This way," Danny grinned, and started flying away. Gulping, and hitting the "end" button on his phone, Tucker decided to try one more number as he cautiously rose to his feet and followed, hoping he could keep up.

- - -

Sam had been sitting at the same booth for over an hour and a half, thinking. Any food she'd bought had long since disappeared, despite her slow ingestion. She sighed as the scene from eariler that day played out in her mind again. Why had she been so stupid? Why had she wanted the extra credit so badly? Why couldn't she get this off of her mind! No matter how hard she tried to get her thoughts away from her best friend, she couldn't. She didn't realize that her phone had been set to silent, nor that it had started to grow dark outside.

Actually, she didn't really notice anything until three people walked by her table.

"Well, if it isn't the loser Goth." Paulina's whiny voice managed to break through her thoughts, and she couldn't help but seethe. All of this was that nosy prep's fault. Nothing would have happened if the so-called "beauty" didn't take so much pleasure in making everyone around her miserable.

Beside her, Star and Dash laughed while Qwan came up beside them, carrying a tray loaded with the wannabe food that the Nasty Burger sold. He looked puzzled, but said nothing to the others, looking around for a table instead.

"So, where's your super-hero boyfriend?"

"He's NOT my boyfriend!" Sam practically yelled.

"And he's not a super-hero?" Star sneered from behind Paulina.

Sam opened her mouth for a retort, when a cold voice suddenly interrupted them from somewhere behind her. "Who's not a hero?" The snickering that seemed to perpetually accompany Paulina's insults stopped immediately.

"GHOST!" Qwan yelled, throwing his food in the air and dashing for the door. The food on the tray landed on Dash and Star as they followed suit. Paulina wasn't too far behind them, trying not to stumble and slip what her friends weren't now wearing.

If Sam hadn't recognized the voice and turned, she would have cracked up at the scene. However, she was too busy trying not to have a heart attack from the face she saw. She knew that face all too well, seeing as it still haunted her nightmares.

"D-Danny!"


	7. New Crush?

When Qwan started screaming like a baby, Paulina ran after only a slight hesitation that confirmed the ghost wasn't her Danny. Frankly, she was thankful he focused on the loser girl instead of following them. His voice had sent shivers up her spine, and he gave off a feeling that was, to say the least, creepy. Still, looking back, he did seem familiar…

Suddenly she stopped as a thought entered her mind. He might not _be_ the ghost boy, but maybe he _knew_ the ghost boy. Even if he didn't, then maybe Danny Phantom would show up and save her…or something. He always had before.

One of the many customers ran past her, bumping her out of her thoughts. "Watch it!" she blurted in annoyance, then glanced around at the almost empty dining area. Biting her lip, she looked back to see the ghost had cornered the loser Goth, and they were talking about something.

She didn't notice the look of fear on Sam's face.

With only a slight pause, she ducked under the nearest table, despite its absolutely gross encrustation.Some places looked like they hadn't been touched by anything clean in centuries, and she desperately tried to keep her head down to keepher hair away from the sickening assortment of gum stuck on the underside of the table. "The Ghost Boy better appreciate this," she muttered, crouchingin the now empty aisle, and inched towards the specter and the girl he faced.

-----

"Hello, Sam," Danny growled at Sam's shocked face. The width of his smile seemed to be directly connected to the growing sickness in her stomach—it widened with every syllable, and with it grew the nauseous churning in her belly. For some reason, she couldn't tear her eyes away from his narrowed red ones as they peered through his now streaked hair, but could only stare in fear and shock. Unconsciously, she shifted, trying to move away from him, and felt her back come up against the cold, smooth window glass. Italmost seemed warm, compared to his voice.

"I—you—" she stuttered, cursing her mind for not being prepared enough to grasp the situation, not that she'd ever thought she'd have to again. "I—but…what happened! Why…?" She couldn't seem to finish the sentence, but he cut her off anyway.

"What do you mean, why?" he asked, the smile vanishing from his face. "Why am I like this? Why did I suddenly take this form?" He leaned towards her, and his voice whispered harshly in her ear, causing her stomach to harden into a lump of ice. "It's all because of you."

Fear suddenly turned to anger. Was he blaming her for this? "Me!" she shrieked. "Why! What did I do?"

He sighed as he began to drift through the air around her, his legs melting into a tail that faded eerily into the air behind him. "How sad," he commented with a fake depression. "Quite disappointing that you wouldn't remember."

"Remember what?" she growled. "Does this have to do with what happened today?" She thrust her thumb over her shoulder towards the school as she spoke. He didn't answer her, although his expression darkened (vaguely, she remembered being surprisedthat that was possible). "I didn't have anything to—" Her hand cut through the air in a negative gesture, almost hitting a figure that had appeared at her side. They both jumped when the girl yelped and dodged. Looking over, Sam realized that she knew the ghostly newcomer as one of the twins they'd seen earlier that day.

"You shouldn't try to hit people," the girl pouted, drawing back and floating out towards the walkway. When no one answered her, she sighed (still pouting) and looked down. "What have we here?" Her face suddenly lit up, and Sam spied Paulina's face peeking around the edge of the seat.

The girl stood up quickly, stuttering. "I—I was just—just wondering if—I mean—"

"No," Danny rolled his eyes at her. "He's not here, and he's not going to show up and save you either."

Paulina suddenly looked dumbfounded. "But—but he always has before!"

Danny's cruel chuckle resounded through the eerily empty restaurant. "I'm far different from most of his other…opponents."

"Then—er—I'm going to just leave," Paulina gulped and started backing away.

"Why?" Danny asked, his malicious smile growing larger. "Why don't you stay?" Even though his attention had momentarily been diverted from her, Sam couldn't help but shudder at his cruel expression.

"N-no thanks," Paulina mumbled, before starting to mutter under her breath in Spanish.

"I said stay." His smile disappeared once again, as Paulina turned and dashed for the door. Danny glanced at the Abby and raised an eyebrow. "Abby, would you be so kind as to STOP HER!" he asked the girl, who still floated above where Paulina had been standing.

A smile suddenly appeared on the ghost's tattooed face. "Of course," she winked and dove at Paulina's retreating figure, disappearing inside the lean frame just as she reached the exit. The Latino girl's body froze at the door, and a green field surrounded her briefly before it faded. After several seconds, she turned around, now sporting bright green eyes.

"Abby," the second twin said reprovingly as she suddenly appeared behind her sister, shaking her head.

"What?" Paulina asked, her voice having risen several pitches. "It was his idea," she thumbed over her shoulder at Danny, who merely smirked at them.

"Really?" Ashlynn looked at him dryly.

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I just thought you two might want to go out on the town as humans tonight. There should be a lot of publicity, and we don't want people freaking out too quickly, after all. It'll take all the fun out of it."

"Out of what?" Ashlynn's look never softened.

"Oh," Danny waved his hand, "just a few harmless pranks and tricks here and there…nothing that should cause lasting damage."

"Come on, Ash," Abby poked her sister with a smile. "It'll be fun!"

"Why are you asking me, anyway?" Ashlynn sighed. "I'm not the one who overshadowed a human."

Danny nodded and put a hand on Sam's shoulder, preventing her from sliding under the table (as she had been inching downward), and making a break for the door. "You have an excellent point, Ashlynn. Meet Sam." Violet eyes widened in disbelief and realization as the half-ghost continued. "She was one of my best friends before she betrayed me and tried to tell the entire school my secret."

"It wasn't my fault!" Sam yelled, her eyes narrowing.

"Right," Danny's voice dripped with sarcasm. "So, I wanted to start the night with a little payback. Will you help me? I mean, you won't really hurt her or anything."

"NO!" Sam yelled, her fears now confirmed, and she struggled unsuccessfully to break his hold on her arm. "It's my body! My freedom! You can't take that from me!"

Danny yanked her face close to his so she could stare into his burning eyes. "You should have thought about that before you lost your temper today."

"Danny…don't do this…" she whispered to him, but the sickening smile only returned and he looked over to see the twins in discussion.

"I don't' know," Ashlynn eyed Sam warily.

"Come on!" Abby urged her sister. "As long as it won't hurt anyone, why not?"

"Hmm." Ashlynn put a hand to her chin and tapped one finger on her pale-green skin. "If it will get you to close your mouth for three seconds." She shot a glare at her sister, who returned the look with a cheesy smile that looked completely out of place on Paulina's face. "And," the former continued, "we're not here to cause damage, so as long as you promise she won't get hurt," this time she directed a stern look at Danny, "I will."

"No..." Sam shrank away. The ghost girl paused, glancing at Danny and Abby, who both encouraged her with nods. Finally, she flew at Sam, who shrieked one final time as the girl vanished inside her.

"Ah, sweet revenge," Danny cackled as Sam's body went rigid, and the same green field appeared around her.

Purple eyes grew to a bright green, and blinked several times before looking up at Danny's red ones. "She's fighting me. I don't want to keep it up for more than a few hours. How long is your payback going to last?"

"A few hours, at the most," Danny agreed. "I just wanted to…er…to get her thinking about the consequences of her actions."

Ashlynn looked at him thoughtfully for several seconds before she opened Sam's mouth and spoke in a much deeper tone than usually came out of the purple-colored lips. "You really are a bad boy, aren't you? But not too bad as far as I can see. I like that."

Danny shrugged. "I try."

"Now, about those tricks," a genuine smile appeared on Sam's face, causing Abby to stare and blink several times at her sister. She couldn't remember the last time Ashlynn had truly smiled at anyone besides her, and she didn't know what to think of it.

"I did say harmless, didn't I?" Danny looked slightly disappointed for a few seconds before blowing it off with a shrug. "I'll just have to save taking over the world for tomorrow." Abby and Ashlynn exchanged glances, neither of them sure if he was joking or not.

A shadow of doubt crossed Paulina's face. "I think I liked him better when he was good," Abby muttered to herself. Her sister glanced at her as Danny started to talk again.

"Follow me, ladies." He gestured to the wall, and phased through it, flying off into the night.

Just as the twins rose to follow him, Ashlynn turned to look at Abby. "Okay, you know how I hate to admit I'm wrong, but I was…and you were right. He is hot." Then with a giggle, she followed Danny, turning Sam's body intangible just before she hit the window.

"Does that mean I'm the responsible one?" Abby gulped, and a look of horror passed across her face. "I hope not. This isn't turning out so good…" she murmured as she followed her sister.

None of them saw the dark figure watching them from behind the dumpster.

A dark figure wearing a red beret, who flipped open the cell phone in his hand and dialed a number he'd known by heart since the second grade.

"I can't believe he did that to Sam!" the boy said as he bit his nails nervously. Suddenly, his face melted into a trance-like look. "Although, I can't blame him about Paulina… Focus, Tucker!" He shook his head as a voice picked up on the other end.

"Jazz!" he yelled, recognizing the other voice on the line immediately.

"Tucker?" Jazz asked. "What's wrong? What was that about a ghost on the television? Where's Danny? Mom and Dad should be there—"

"Aaaaaa!" Tucker yelled, and jumped out of the way of the blinding headlights of an, oncoming vehicle just in time.

Jazz sighed. "About now."

From the sidewalk, he looked up just in time to see what looked like the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle squeal around the corner in the direction that Danny and the two girls had gone. "I've gotta get out outta here!" the nerd said, half to himself, half to Jazz as he ducked around the side of the building, running directly into a heap of garbage bags.

"Tucker?" Jazz yelled, her voice barely audible over the clattering and yelling that ensued.

A few moments later, a dejected voice floated over the phone. "I'm okay," Tucker said as he picked a tin can off of his head, and brushing things off of his clothes that he didn't want to know about. "Jazz, we need your help."

A slight, shocked pause came from the other end before she took a deep breath. "I'll pick you up in five minutes. Tell me where you are, and what happened."

* * *

I would like to appologize for my tardiness in getting up this chapter. Been having issues. My roomate doesnn't want me to get on the computer at night (when I'm up now because I have the grave shift at my job) because it keeps her awake. Frankly, I'd like to know what she'd like me to do, because if I stay in my room like a good little girl (with no typing involved because I don't have a writing program onmy computer yet) then I'll probably fall asleep. Sometimes I think she thinks that she's the only one who matters in the house. 

Anywho, I'll try and get more up soon, seeing as I've almost finished the sketch (this is going to be several chapters long I think...longer than I originally thought in any case).

Replies (constructive) are encuraged...or in other words gets on knees and begs PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

Oh, and as promised, here are some pictures. You'll just have to copy them into the adress bar and delete the spaces.

www. deviantart. com /view /12519870 /  
www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 14196628 /  
www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 13249211 /  
www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 13214301 /  
www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 13201734 /  
www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 14352044 /  
www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 13849674 / (This one someone else did for me)  
www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 12518634 /  
www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 12132652 / My first try of this design of Evil Danny (or Dark Danny)  
www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 12156751 / An older design I didn't like too much.  
www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 11403036 / has absolutely nothing to do with the story...isn't even Evil Danny...but hey. I like being random.  
www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 10493110 (Regular Danny with a different view on a transformation)

Hope those help ya'all.


	8. Mischief and Super Suits

"Hello?" Tucker picked up his cell phone as he ran down his street and dashed inside his house in a vain attemptto block out the loud blaring coming from speakers set all over town.

"Tucker?"

"Jazz!" Tucker literally yelled. "Where are you!"

A frustrated sound came from the redhead's end of the phone. "I still haven't found my keys!" she said, trying to keep hysterics out of her voice.

"Well," Tucker looked around warily, "he hasn't done anything too bad so far–"

"You call shutting off the water supply to most of the town and setting off the hurricane alarm not too bad!" she countered, as she tore the cushions off of the couch for the third time that night and checked in the sides for her keys.

Tucker cleared his throat. "Well, his future self destroyed the entire town...after destroying the worl-"

"Tucker, not right now!" Jazz's voice raised several octaves with worry.

"Sorry."

She sighed with frustration. "As much as I hate to say it, you know his habits better than I do. Where do you think he'll strike next?"

Tucker paused for a moment, thinking. "Um...the school maybe?"

"Why?" Jazz threw the cushions back on the couch, and collapsed on them in defeat.

"Revenge," the techno-geek replied simply.

"Oh," Jazz sighed and forced herself up again, determined to find those stupid keys. "I know I put them on the table here..." she muttered, half to herself.

"Maybe a ghost took them," Tucker suggested.

"Ha, ha," Jazz said sarcastically, glaring at the phone, despite the fact that her brother's best friend couldn't see her.

Tucker sighed. "Look I–wait, I just heard that they're going to send the military into town soon to try and stop the ghost attacks!"

Jazz gasped and grabbed the remote, flipping on the television and clicking to a local news station.

"...latest breaking news on Amity Park's newest ghost threat that will be hopefully taken care of when the military arrives." The reporter said in a nasally, sing-song voice.

"Great," Jazz grimaced. "So, where was help when Pariah Dark took over?" Tucker didn't answer.

"Here are some pictures sent to us by a local concerned citizen," the reporter went on.

A picture of Danny, Sam and Paulina appeared on the screen with Danny half phased through a wall. Paulina looked annoyed, while Sam seemed uncharacteristically dreamy.

"Apparently," the reporter continued, "he has two hostages who we believe to be 'overshadowed' by a ghost, meaning the ghost is controlling them."

Another picture flashed across the screen, showing all three of them looking at the camera, and then a picture of Danny close up, his red eyes glowing with mischief. He looked to be saying "boo".

"Here he is scaring away the aforementioned citizen, who wished to remain anonymous," the anchorwoman continued. "They've set off the hurricane alert, shut down the water supply to most of the town," a large map of Amity park appeared on the screen, with several areas colored in red and marked 'water down'. "They have also been spotted throwing toilet paper over this out-of-shape teacher's home." Apicture of Mr. Lancer popped up in the corner next to her. "And finally, they were last seen at the Nasty Burger, hanging high school freshman quarterback Dash Baxter on the sign by his underwear.

Jazz's mouth dropped open at the sight of the squirming jock, yelling with a pained expression from the top of the restaurant sign.

"Tucker, are you watching this?" Jazz asked quietly, not sure what else to say, just as she heard the techno geek burst into laughter.

"Oh man," he managed to choke out. "This whole thing is almost worth it just for that!"

"TUCKER!"

"Sorry,"

Jazz couldn't help but growl at the phone. "Meet me at the school, okay?" she said through gritted teeth, and hung up before he could answer. Then she turned and looked around at the mess she had created in her search.

"That's it," she sighed and walked into the other room. A few seconds later, she left with some keys jangling from her hand.

-----

"Itching powder?" Ashlynn asked, raising Sam's eyebrow. Paulina/Abby only stared the two cans he held out to her and her sister.

"For the girls' locker room," Danny smiled slyly. "Normally, I'd do it myself, but I have a few personal grievances begging for my attention..." He faded off with a malicious grin, noticing their blank stares. "Besides," he shrugged, "you know the best places to put it."

"And...after this?" Ashlynn gestured down the hall of Casper High, where he'd called a haltfor a few moments.

Danny shrugged again. "I'm sure we can come up with something, but this is the last idea I have for payback...well, except for one, but we'd have to travel quite a distance over land or through the Ghost Zone. I'll just save that for later...or maybe we can do that tonight too."He shrugged for a third time. "We'll see what we feel like after this, alright?"

Abby and Ashlynn exchanged glances before nodding warily.

Smiling, Danny floated past them towards the locker rooms. "Shall we get started?"

-----

Jazz couldn't see anyone when she finally pulled up to the school, but she did notice the front doors standing ajar, and the lock looked like it had been melted, even from this distance.

Slowly, she stepped out of the vehicle and tip-toed over to the building.

"Tucker?" she whispered, poking her head in the door carefully. "Tucker! Did you blast this lock? Hello?"

"No," a voice from the darkness caused her to jump. "I saw Danny do it."

A figure emerged from the shadows just inside the door as Jazz put a hand to steady her beating heart. "Don't scare me like that, Tucker! And why would he–" she stopped when she shot a glare in his direction, her expression quickly turning into one of disbelief. She stood there for several minutes, unable to do anything but stare at the younger boy. In place of his normal clothes, he had a yellow, spandex suit on with red boots, collar gloves and belt to match the red beret he still wore over the yellow hood. He had taped red cellophane over his glasses so they looked like safety glasses almost, and on top of that, he wore his backpack.

"I think he just wanted to," he shrugged, answering Jazz's unfinished question. After a moment of silence, he noticed her shocked look.

"What?" he asked, looking down at his outfit. "I made it in Home Ec., okay?" he defended with a glare. "I figured with Danny out of action..."

Jazz put a hand over her eyes and dragged it down her face. "How is it that Danny has the ghost powers, and you're the weird one?"

Before Tucker could answer, a distant clatter caused them both to jump.

"I've got the thermos!" the techno-geek said, striking a pose. "Let's go, Jazz!"

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered before grabbing Tucker's shoulder, and taking the thermos out of his hands before he'd even taken a step. "The point is to knock him out first," she sighed. "Here's the Fenton Ghost-horn," she took the instrument that could knock out any ghost within a hundred yards by using sound waves, similar to Danny's Ghostly Wail, out of her backpack, and put the thermos in its place.

"Now," she nodded to him, "we can go." She couldn't help but grin at his unusually serious demeanor as she followed him down the hall towards the locker rooms, their feet echoing eerily in the silence.

* * *

Here are all the wonderful people who are still reading AND REVIEWING cough, despite the sad state of my updating... 

Atemu's Lover

ChaosFallen

Kitsune6

the sleep warrior

dArkliTe-sPirit

Satoshi Silver Syoran

Asilla

WingsofMorphius

And for those of you who couldn't see the pictures, Im terribly sorry. Check out Evil-Danny-Club .deviantart .com (without spaces) or Obi-quiet .deviantart .com (without spaces). The second is my home page, and you may have to go back a little ways, but you'll spot ED (Evil Danny...;) When you see him). Oh, and be careful please, Deviantart tends to be graphic if you go searching in the wrong places...


	9. Confrontation

Okay, I have issues straitened out (for the most part), and I'm going to finish putting this up! I should have it all up by the end of the month, depending on my beta reader who's having some problems, but she's as awesome as ever, even if I'm not. Trying to get back into the swing of things, so please bare with me. Thanks guys:hug:

* * *

"What was that!" Danny hissed as he poked his head through the boy's locker room door, only to see Paulina's head do the same from the Girls. Although he knew it was really Abby, seeing 'Paulina' use that ability still unnerved him slightly...not that he would ever admit it.

"Ash knocked over a bucket," Abby explained hastily. "We're sorry!"

They both paused as the echo of footsteps reached their ears. A devious smile crossed Danny's face as he looked down the hall toward the sounds.

"Remind me to thank her later," he said, with a cruel grin, and vanished. Abby blinked and looked around before shrugging her shoulders and disappearing inside the locker room once again.

xoxoxox

Jazz followed Tucker down the hall, glancing down at the Fenton Ghost Finder as she went. "Looks like they're directly ahead," she whispered to Tucker.

"Why are you whispering?" he whispered back.

"Because I don't want to let Danny know we're--"

"You've got to be kidding me..."a familiar, disembodied voice cut her off before she could say anything more.

"-here," she finished dejectedly.

"That worked well," Tucker commented sarcastically, just before stumbling backward to avoid Danny, who appeared about three inches from his face.

He shook his head in mock amazement as he spoke: "And you were complaining about the karate suit?" he asked, his voice incredulous but mocking at the same time. Then he rocked back in the air, laughing with his hands wrapped around his stomach.

Tucker gritted his teeth, but Jazz stepped in before either one could say any more.

"Danny, what happened to you!" she asked. "Why are you like this again!"

Her brother stopped (with some difficulty) and regarded her thoughtfully. "That's right. I didn't tell you the last time I had this much fun...you know, the whole thing with Vlad--the idiot--and the gloves, you thought my goodie-two-shoed hero side was back to stay." He chuckled darkly. "I never told you about the little voice in the back of my mind. Well he--" he paused, and suddenly swept his arm aside in a sweeping bow, still standing in mid-air, "--I, decided to take over again."

Jazz opened her mouth to say something else when the girl's locker room door opened. Sam walked out, raising an eyebrow and blinking at the newcomers.

"And it's all thanks to Sam," Danny added as an afterthought.

Ashlynn blinked her green eyes and shook Sam's head, deciding she probably didn't want to know. "Danny, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for knocking the bucket over like that."

"Actually," he grinned, "it worked out for the best."

Jazz stepped forward with her hands on her hips. "We're not letting you get away."

"It's not like you can stop me," Danny scoffed at her before turning back to Sam. "Shall we?"

"Leave?" Ashlynn blinked. "Uh...sure."

"Oh no you don't!" Tucker said, tossing a silver, black and green airhorn to Jazz, who caught it easily.

"NO!" Danny and Ashlynn yelled simultaneously, both pairs of eyes wide with recognition. They'd both been there the first time the Fenton Airhorn had been used on ghosts. Although she had been under the of control of another ghost at the time and everything seemed like a big blurred mix, she distinctly remembered the object Jazz now held...and the memory wasn't one she favored.

She dove at Danny, phasing him through the wall just as the spectral energy in sonic form resounded through the empty halls, magnifying it.

Danny and Sam both landed on the other side of the wall, outside the school, and slid along the pavement before skidding to a stop. Ashlynn stayed on the ground, just hanging onto consciousness.

"Ow," she muttered.

"Sam! I mean, Ashlynn!" Danny yelled, mentally kicking himself for the slip. She turned half-lidded green eyes up to look at him. "You must have only gotten a glancing blow..." he muttered, half to himself, half to her.

"Ow," she replied. Danny turned a darkening glare back tot he wall they'd just come through, and he growled as he stood and leapt back into the school.

Meanwhile Tucker and Jazz had started for the nearest door, hoping they would be prepared for another bout against the half-ghost.

"Do you think we got them?" Tucker asked.

"I don't know," Jazz replied. "All I know is--" She stopped as the Fenton Airhorn jerked violently away from her. "NO!" she yelped, stumbling after it, but to no avail. She and Tucker backed away as the weapon began to glow red.

"This will teach you who you've decided to deal with!" Danny's voice snarled at them just as the canister exploded, shattering into pieces that flew in all directions. Jazz and Tucker cried out as they caught the brunt of the blast, dropping to their knees in its wake.

The locker room door opened again as Paulina stumbled out, her hands over her ears. "That...noise...what was it?" she muttered almost incoherently.

"The Fenton Airhorn," Danny said, glaring at his sister and best friend.

"Oh. Ash?" Abby turned a still stunned gaze around the hall. "Ashlynn?" Her eyes widened suddenly, all confusion gone in an instant. "ASHLYNN!" She rushed over to Danny and grabbed the front of his suit, looking at him with a pleading, almost desperate look. "Where is she!" she yelled hysterically. "You know, don't you!"

Danny blinked at her before answering in a stammer. "Um...I-I...yes. She phased through that wall," he gestured behind him, "when--" He stopped, realizing that he now spoke to thin air. "Um..." he blinked a confused look away and turned back to Jazz and Tucker, recovered from their temporary daze.

"We'll settle this later," he growled, then leaned towards Jazz. "Count on it, Jazz." With that, he followed Paulina through the wall.

Tucker looked around at the scattered pieces of the Airhorn--the one weapon besides the Fenton Thermos they knew would work on Danny without seriously hurting him—with a worried expression. Shaking off the rest of his daze (although he couldn't quite shake the fear and despair that accompanied it), he looked helplessly over at Jazz as she regained her feet and started rummaging through his backpack.

"What are you doing?" he asked. "We can't stop him now."

"Yes we can," she muttered softly.

Tucker sighed and sat back on his haunches. "How?"

"We capture him," she replied after a hesitation.

Tucker blinked. "But even if we catch him, we can't knock him out, and unless we can he won't change back to Danny!" Tucker pointed out, punching the floor in frustration. "Ow!" he yelped and shook his hand with a grimace.

Jazz didn't answer.

"Jazz?" Tucker looked back, only to see her holding his Fenton Thermos, and looking at it sadly.

"We have to treat him like we'd treat any other malevolent ghost we catch..."

Tucker suddenly stood up as he realized what she had implied. "Jazz, we—we can't! I am NOT throwing my best friend into the Ghost Zone!"

"Do you think I like the idea?" The red-head snapped back. Then she took a breath and forcibly calmed herself. "Unless you can come up with a better idea, we may have to, Tucker," she said, walking past him and towards the door. "We have to stop him however we can."

"But--" Tucker started, helplessly.

Jazz cut him off with a glare. "That's what ghost hunters do, and this is our solution until we come up with something better." With that, she turned away, leaving a mortified Tucker to follow after her. He didn't see the tear that dripped down her cheek before she could wipe it away.

"Please let us find another way," she prayed silently, mentally preparing herself for the confrontation that would undoubtedly come all too soon. "Please..."


	10. Tracking Danny

_So...what's their problem?_ Danny asked himself as he followed Abby through the school wall. _She won't be happy that I left Ashlynn out there by herself. I'm not finished with them yet! I need to think of something to tell her before she drags her sister off while I still need them._

He looked around as he emerged from the wall, and had to stifle a laugh at the sight that met his eyes in the evening light.

"No, Abby, I'm fine. I promise." Ashlynn rolled her eyes at her sister as Abby offered a caramel-colored hand to help her up.

"Whoa," Danny muttered to himself with a smile, "Paulina helping Sam..."

"What are you snickering at?" Abby's unusually sharp voice wiped the smile from his face instantly.

He folded his arms and leaned against the wall nonchalantly. "She saved both of us from unconsciousness when those two hit us with the spectral sound wave." He shrugged. "So I eliminated the threat."

"You could at least have seen if she was alright!" Abby thrust Paulina's hands at Sam, who again rolled her green eyes.

"Abby," she warned just as Danny leaned forward to defend himself.

"I--" He paused, spotting a dark speck hurtling in their direction...one he recognized immediately as Valerie in her new outfit. _She's going to hit them! _he realized instantly. _She's going to hit my friends!_ His eyes went wide and flickered with green light. Before he knew what he was doing, his mouth opened, seemingly on its own accord. "DUCK!" he shouted the warning, causing the two girls to jump and whirl around just in time to see a bright red ectoplasmic cannon blast streaking towards them.

Suddenly everything seemed to happen in slow motion: With a shriek of alarm, Ashlynn grabbed her head and ducked, while Abby threw her arms up in vain self-defense, both girls bracing themselves for a blast that never landed. After a few seconds, Ashlynn peeked through her hands to see Danny standing between them and the hunter, holding up an ectoplasmic shield and looking extremely confused.

"How did I get here?" he asked an open-mouthed Abby. He couldn't remember anything except the need to protect these two new friends...wait, he was a ghost! He didn't have friends. He didn't need friends!

"See?" Unaware of his thoughts, Ashlynn smirked at her sister as the hunter growled at them.

"You and your friends had better leave here, ghost!" she yelled.

This challenge lifted Danny's spirits. He cocked an eyebrow, amused smile returning in full force. "I have two questions for you," he replied slyly, still maintaining the shield. "Why should we, and who's going to make us?" He folded his arms, cruel grin widening. "Because you certainly can't do anything about it."

Valerie's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Oh yeah?" she growled. "Since I got my new suit, not even the ghost boy can stop me."

Danny laughed openly at this, thoroughly enjoying the irony of the situation.

"You're worse than Vlad Masters!" he cackled. "Have you been taking lessons from him or something?"

Another cannon appeared in the air next to her as she shifted to a more defensive stance. "How did you know Mr. Masters was helping me?" she asked.

Danny thought for a moment. As he contemplated her words, he missed the look that passed between the two girls behind him.

"I didn't know," he finally answered in an icy voice. "But I do now...and he's going to pay for it."

"Not if I can help it!" Valerie yelled, shaking her fist at them. She paused to collect herself, her expression turning as cocky as Danny's. "This new equipment isn't from Mr. Masters, and it's even better," she taunted, indicating the suit given her to distract Danny during Technus' bid to take over the world. "Why should I even believe you can do anything?"

"Why don't you ask your little friend Danny Fenton?" Danny raised his eyebrow again, offering her an unimpressed smile.

Her face suddenly lost all emotion and her voice lowered to an even more dangerous note. "Is that a threat?"

The half-ghost couldn't stand it any longer. He let out a loud guffaw, before putting his hand to his head as he shook it ruefully.

"And they call ME clueless."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Um, Danny?" Abby tapped him on the shoulder. Still chuckling, he turned to face them, keeping the shield behind him. "Could you...er...show us where you freed us before? We," she paused and glanced at Ashlynn, who nodded, "don't remember very much, and we'd like to know."

Danny blinked at them for a second before shrugging. "Sure, I guess."

"It doesn't matter where you go, ghost, I will get you!" Valerie yelled at them.

"Would you care to wager on that?" Danny asked, before turning intangible and diving into the ground, followed by Sam and Paulina. Seconds later, the shield fell and Valerie floated down to where her quarry had stood.

"We'll see about finding you, ghost," she muttered as she turned on a device that began beeping, unaware of the two people watching from the bushes, who had overheard almost all of the conversation.

With a satisfied look on her face, she began to glide slowly towards the dock, keeping her eyes on the instrument.

"They won't have too long with Valerie tracking them," Jazz whispered to Tucker, standing up slowly as Valerie's frame disappeared into the deepening night.

"He'll probably be able to lose her," Tucker pointed out. "He's got a few tricks up his sleeve."

"Most of them dealing with changing back to human," Jazz countered, "which he won't do right now."

Tucker put his hand to his chin, "We'd better get there first, then. We know where they're going, that old warehouse down by the lake. Do you have your car?"

"Er..." Jazz scratched her head, looking slightly embarrassed. "Not exactly."

"Then what?" Tucker asked as he followed her around the corner of the school, only to stop dead in his tracks. "You've got to be kidding me..."

"Nope," Jazz sighed as she clicked the button in her hands, unlocking the door to the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle. "When I couldn't find my keys, I realized I just had to get here any way I could, and since Mom and Dad are out testing the Fenton Family Mini Assault Vehicle--"

"Wait..." Tucker interrupted with a snicker, "Mini? They built another one?"

Jazz sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. But with Dad's driving, it's just as dangerous."

"Yeah, I know," Tucker muttered, remembering having to dodge out of the way of what he had thought was the Fenton's RV.

"Come on," Jazz said, shaking her head, "Let's go. We have to hurry!" Tucker snapped to attention and dashed around the side of the RV as Jazz yanked her door open.

"Yeah, before we're too late," he agreed, crossing his fingers. He noticed when Jazz snapped her seatbelt on that she also crossed her fingers.

He wasn't sure if he should be reassured or more scared than ever.

Meanwhile...

Across town, near the dock, a small, armored car sped through a red light, tires squealing as it took a left turn in gleeful disregard of the honking cars that swerved out of its way.

"See, Maddie!" Jack grinned past his hunched shoulders and down to his wife, who sat squashed against the window, looking faintly sick. "I told you we'd both be able to fit in here comfortably!"

Maddie could only respond with a sigh. "Fitting" inside, to Jack, meant that they could breathe, even if only barely.

Just as he made another sweeping turn, alarms started to beep all over the car.

"GHOST!" Both adults in the car yelled, and the car accelerated towards several warehouses near the water.

* * *

Well, due to some difficulties my beta reader is having, I may not get this all up by the end of the month, but I am going to get it up asap. I have the best beta reader anyways, so I guess you guys will just have to wait a little longer, 'cause I 'aint givin' her up!

Anywho, I hope you like this.


	11. Warehouse Fight

Okay, so my beta reader is having some promlems IRL right now, so updates aren't going to be as fast asyou guyswould like, and I'm sorry, but quality over quantity, right? Writing more tonight, hoping to get some chapters back soon.

* * *

The last strands of light had just begun to fade from the surface of the vast, placid lake when Danny and the twins phased up through the floor of the old warehouse where he'd fought Hortensia and her little horde of trapped ghosts. 

"Well, here it is," Danny yawned, dropping to the floor and glancing around in boredom. "Just remember," he shot a pointed look at the two girls, who exchanged their own glance, "I'm not a tour guide, okay?" They nodded simultaneously, obviously not wanting to disagree with him just now. Satisfied, he turned around to look at the room as if he stood in a garbage heap. Dust lay like a matted blanket, and the traces of some...thing taking shelter recently drifted through the air, mixing unpleasantly with the musty scent of the old building. "Don't they ever clean this place?"

"So...you know Mr. Masters?" Ashlynn asked slowly. Danny turned and blinked at them, knowing that something had been on their minds since their little "battle" with Valerie.

"Also known as Vlad Plasmius? Ch. Yeah."

"You know he's half-ghost too?" Abby blurted.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Duh."

"We were under the impression you didn't know," Ashlynn blinked, looking slightly perturbed.

The half-ghost chuckled. "Of course I know. He's a putrid, pathetic half-ghost who thinks he's all that, but he can't even get the three things he wants most! And he's such an idiot! He doesn't even have a girlfriend, let alone a wife...especially the one he wants...heh, heh." He grinned and leaned against one of the walls, waving a hand through the air with a shrug. "And everyone knows a super villain should have at least a girlfriend, even if only for appearances..." He suddenly faded off, blinking in realization. Both girls opened their mouths to ask if he was okay, but he cut them off with a warm smile.

"So," he said, as his smile reappeared and he leaned towards the closest of the two ghost girls: Ashlynn. "Wanna be my girl?"

Both of the sisters started with shock and surprise, but it quickly faded: Ashlynn to an ecstatic smile and Abby to a mixture of jealousy and annoyance.

"REALLY!" Ashlynn leaned Sam's body forward eagerly.

"Of course!" Danny's grin widened. "Why would I joke about something like that?"

"Because you have a cruel sense of humor," Abby muttered under her breath. Ashlynn either didn't hear her sister, or ignored her, and Danny only shot her a warning glance.

"YES!" Ashlynn grinned, leaning forward, puckering Sam's purple lips.

"Huh?" Danny blinked, not anticipating her eager reaction. "Oh...right." With a cocky grin, he leaned toward her, then wobbled and pulled back as his eyes flickered to green. He put an unsteady hand to his head. "No…this...I mean...we're just friends..."

Abby and Ashlynn shot confused looks at each other, then Ashlynn looked down to see her hands.

Understanding washed over Sam's features. "Oh, right;the body." A few seconds later, a green aura shone around her and two figures separated, one falling to the floor with a groan, and one floating in the air above. Ashlynn turned her eyes back to Danny. "Now, where were we?"

His red eyes turned up to her, and he leaned forward, "Right about here..."

Abby turned her back on them with a scowl, while on the floor Sam slowly opened her eyes and blinked several times at the scene unfolding above her. She wished she could interfere, but knew what would happen if she did, and didn't relish the thought of spending a few weeks in the hospital.

The couple's lips were just about to brush, when a loud crash resounded from the front of the warehouse. Everyone jumped, spinning to see Jack and Maddie Fenton rushing in through the still-quivering door Jack had kicked in, weapons out.

"Don't move, ghosts!" Jack yelled as he and his wife flanked the four figures.

Danny opened his mouth to speak, but a loud boom drowned him out. He looked up toward the noise, where a black and red streak came diving through a smoking hole in the roof.

"Ha!" Valerie exclaimed. "I knew I could trace your ecto-signature, ghost!"

"Oh, please," Danny groaned, backing away from a disappointed Ashlynn.

"Get Ashlynn out of here." Abby turned Paulina's head towards her two companions.

"What?" Danny glared at her. "You don't think I can handle all of these guys?"

Paulina's look of worry turned into a hard stare. "Not if you want to keep your promise, ghost boy."

"Abby, what are you doing?" Ashlynn reached towards her sister.

"I SAID DON'T MOVE!" Jack yelled. "Maddie, get their ecto-signatures in memory so we can capture them!"

"Abby, I'm the older sister, I take care of you!" Ashlynn said out of the corner of her mouth.

"Not this time, sis," Abby replied, and stepped forward. "Please! Help me!" she said with a slightly Spanish accent. "Get me away from the ghosts!"

Jack and Maddie looked at each other, both hesitating at this new turn of events. After a few seconds, Maddie took a slow step towards them, lowering her gun slightly.

"Don't!" A voice from behind all three of them caused everyone to look at Sam, who now stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at the trio. "She's overshadowed!"

"What?" Maddie raised her weapon again, stopping dead in her tracks.

"No I'm not!" Paulina shot a glare at the Goth before turning a pleading look at Maddie and Jack. "Please! Help me!"

Maddie stared for a moment at the two obviously surprised ghosts who floated, staring at Paulina, then at the hunter who still hovered near the hole she'd made in the roof who looked like she had something in hand, then glanced back at Sam.

"Jack, cover me," she said, putting her weapon away and taking out a small, oval device.

"Great idea, honey! The Ecto-stun will hurt ghosts, but not humans, even if a ghost has taken over a host." Suddenly his face brightened. "Heh-hay! I'm a poet! I rhymed! Ghost and host! Get it?"

Maddie didn't answer, preparing to throw the Ecto-stun instead.

"We're outta here," Danny said to the other two, and turned to go.

"No you don't!" Valerie yelled, hurling a disk at them which spit sparks.

Then everything happened at once. Abby, having heard Danny's parting comment, took one look at Maddie and dove into the floor. Danny pushed Ashlynn behind him, and fired an ecto-blast at the sparking disk. The disk exploded into gas and debris, sending the two ghosts and Sam to the floor, just as the Ecto-stun hit Danny's back. He was too busy shoving Ashlynn out of the way to phase out or brace himself as it suddenly gleamed bright green.

Danny's back suddenly arched in pain, and those who could see watched as green lightning traveled through his body. The shock traveled down his arm to Ashlynn. Her scream joined his own agony filled cry, and they both fell to the floor as the green sparks stopped. The last thing Danny saw as smoke and gas filled the room were two figures darting through the door opposite his parents.

"This is not good," he muttered, as the last of his strength gave out and he collapsed. Two blue rings encircled his waist, leaving an unconscious Danny Fenton to be discovered under the gas.


	12. Rescue

"I am so not looking forward to this," a slightly green Tucker grumbled, as he and Jazz snuck up to a broken window of the warehouse they'd been heading for. "And if you keep driving like that, you'll end up worse than your Dad."

"We had to get here first!" Jazz growled.

"Looks like we made it…except for the ghosts," Tucker commented dryly. Jazz peeked over the window sill to see three figures floating in the middle of the old building.

She turned to Tucker. "Well, it's the best we could hope for."

"So have you figured out what we're going to do?" The redhead bit her lip and shook her head. "Well then…wait! HE'S GONNA KISS HER!"

"He what! Kiss who!" Jazz exclaimed, pushing Tucker out of the way.

"Hey!" He glared at her.

"He's not kissing anyone." She returned the techno-geek's cold gaze.

He blinked in surprise and ran up to the window. "He was! He was gonna kiss… No way!"

"What is it, this time?" Jazz sighed.

"He wasn't gonna kiss Sam, he's gonna kiss the ghost inside Sam!" Jazz snapped her head back towards the trio (now a foursome) in the building. "Well, she isn't inside Sam anymore…"

"Shh!" Jazz said. "We have to stop them!"

"How!" Tucker threw up his hands just as a loud screeching came from the street. Both Jazz and Tucker blanched and again turned back to the window, bonking heads in the process.

"Ow!" Rubbing their heads, they watched as the Fentons and then Valerie cornered the ghosts.

Tucker gulped. "They're done for!"

"No they're not!" Jazz sighed. "I don't think that Valerie could take Danny down without my parents interfering, and she couldn't really stand up to him before…"

They both stared at the scene like it was some sort of horror movie as Danny destroyed the disk Valerie threw at them, only to be struck by whatever Maddie had thrown.

"Da-" Tucker called out, only to have Jazz slap a hand over his mouth.

"The last thing they need to know is that we're here helping him!" she hissed. "Then he will be done for, and so will we!"

Tucker broke away with a glare. "But we have to—"

"I know!" Jazz hissed back. "Look, they haven't seen him yet because of the gas and smoke from Valerie's disk thing. Now's our chance! Come on!"

Tucker merely nodded as he followed Jazz into the greenish-gray cloud that hovered over the limp forms of two of the ghosts they'd been chasing all night.

xoxoxox

"We did it, Maddie!" Jack let out a whoop and stuck his fist in the air in triumph. "We finally captured two ghosts to study!" Maddie simply smiled and nodded enthusiastically, and then looked up towards the hole in the roof, only to see the black and red hunter had disspeared.

Maddie picked her gun back up and turned to Jack to say something, but something from inside the gas caught her attention.

"Where is he?" She heard a soft voice.

"I don't—hey! That's me!" A lower voice replied, only to be shushed by the first one.

"Jack!" She ran over to her husband, stopping his victory dance. "He's not caught yet! Get out the Fenton Fan! I think someone's in there trying to rescue them!"

Jack's face sobered immediately. "Not on my watch, they're not!" he bellowed

"I found him! Hurry!" one of the voices said, panic in their voice.

"Got him!" the other replied.

"Hurry, Jack!" Maddie cried, rushing into the gas cloud as Jack produced a small fan and turned it on.

xoxoxox

Meanwhile, Valerie had retreated to the roof, deciding to stick around in case the Fentons needed her help, but not really wanting much part in what they were going to do. They'd probably just study them, and she wanted to totally obliterate the ghost for what he'd said. Did every ghost in the Ghost Zone know about her feelings for Danny? If they did, then she'd have to keep a closer eye on him, to make sure he stayed safe.

With a sigh, she sat down on her sled and looked around, noticing the second Fenton Family Assault Vehicle for the first time.

"Wait, who…" She paused and urged her sled towards that side of the building. That's when she noticed two figures dragging a third towards the vehicle from the building.

A sick feeling started to form in her stomach as she approached, adding more speed and urgency, and hoping it wasn't what it looked like.

"Oh my gosh! THAT'S DANNY!" she shrieked, racing towards them now.

"Yikes!" Tucker yelped, and Jazz gasped as Valerie landed in front of them.

"What happened? How did this happen? Who did this?" she shrieked, taking a step towards Danny.

Tucker and Jazz exchanged fearful glances.

"Um--" Jazz started, but Tucker cut her off.

"That ghost inside did this! The one with the black streaks in his hair!"

"I knew it!" Valerie growled, her fists balling in anger. "I hope the Fentons tear—"

A shriek of anger from the building cut her off. "WHERE IS HE?" Jack and Maddie exclaimed unanimously. Without taking another look at the trio, Valerie took off, flying at breakneck speed into the old building.

"Tucker!" Jazz hissed.

"What?" Tucker grinned back beneath the red goggles. "I didn't technically lie."

Jazz's glare never softened. "But what if she figures out that…bad Danny ghost and Danny Phantom are the same!"

"How could she find out?" he asked, his glare returning.

"Watch out, here come Mom and Dad!" she whispered back to him. "We'll discuss this later."

"Now I know how Danny feels," Tucker grumbled under his breath. "And I'm glad I'm an only child."

* * *

Okay, hoping for once or twice updating weekly from here on out, and then I'm going to be working on the sequel to Brainwashed. Phew. No more touch and go! Woot!


	13. What's worng with me?

"How is he?" Maddie opened the door to her son's room to ask Jazz and Tucker, who sat on either side of Danny's bed, "Still unconscious?"

Jazz bit her lip and looked over at her brother's pale face as he breathed slowly. At least he breathed. "Yeah," she responded softly. Tucker, who'd long since changed back into his normal clothing, didn't say anything for once.

Maddie sighed. "Your father and I are still trying to track him…the ghost that hurt him, I mean." Jazz and Tucker exchanged glances and gulped. If Maddie noticed it, she didn't comment. "We've even put off studying the other ghost we captured until we find him."

"That's great, Mom," Jazz said flatly, glaring at Tucker, who tried unsuccessfully to pull off a reassuring smile. "We'll keep an eye on him, okay?"

"I was just going to ask you to, but don't stay up all night." She smiled and walked over to her daughter, bending down to kiss her head. "Thank you."

"No problem, Mrs. F." Tucker waved as she turned to leave after one final, worried look at Danny.

"Don't worry, Mom," Jazz reassured. "You said yourself that he was only unconscious from being overshadowed for a few seconds, so he'll be fine." Maddie's smile returned to her face and with a nod, she slipped out of the room.

As soon as the door closed, Jazz rounded on Tucker. "Way to go, Tucker. Send my parents after him with a vengeance."

"I'm sorry, okay?" Tucker raised his hands defensively. "I mean it's not like I—"

"Ohhh." A soft groan from Danny cut him off.

The squabbling stopped instantly. "Danny!" they both said, smiling in relief.

"Ow." Danny put a hand to his head and looked around through half-lidded eyes, blinking at Tucker and Jazz. "What happened?" Their smiles disappeared, and they both suddenly found something very intriguing on the floor. "Wait," Danny said after a few seconds, his face paling a few more shades. "Oh man, PLEASE tell me that was a dream…a nightmare." He looked over at Jazz, who still wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Um…" Tucker replied, looking around uncomfortably.

"No…" Danny flopped back onto his lumpy pillow, putting his hands over his eyes. "But…what could have caused it? I didn't get anything new today, or put on anything I usually don't…"

"Could someone have switched a magnifier with something you normally wear?" Jazz suggested.

Danny shrugged. "I don't know."

"Then we'll have to scan everything," Jazz sighed. "I'll go tell Mom and Dad you're up, and then I'll get the ecto-scanner. You change your clothes while I'm gone."

"What?" Danny blinked up at her.

"So we can scan everything without your ecto-signature interfering."

"Wait," Tucker spoke up for the first time, "if he takes it off, won't that trap the contamination in Danny?"

Jazz looked down thoughtfully, tapping her lips with her finger. "I think we'll just have to take that chance…if you're willing to, Danny."

"I…er…don't know," Danny sat up slowly, biting his lip.

"I guess," Tucker said slowly, "theoretically, as long as he puts it back on, then it might be like he never took it off in the first place."

"So, we'll just have to give everything back to him when he's done, right?" Tucker nodded. "Okay then, I'll be right back." With that, she turned and walked out the door.

Danny looked over at Tucker with a sigh. "Now I'm actually kind of glad Sam isn't here. Can you imagine how embarrassing that would be?"

"About as embarrassing as you losing your pants in front of the entire school?"

Danny could only glare menacingly at Tucker, who couldn't help but notice that his friend's eyes remained blue.

oOo

"I don't get it," Jazz sighed and held up the blue jeans she'd been scanning. "Nothing."

"Can I have my pants back now?" Danny's irritated, muffled voice sounded from the closet. Tucker sighed, grabbed the pants Jazz had just finished scanning, and walked over to the door, throwing them inside. "Ow! Hey!" Danny growled at him.

Tucker didn't notice. "Nothing. And we scanned EVERYTHING…twice," he commented, frustration creeping into his words.

Jazz sighed and rested her chin on her hand. "You're sure you haven't put ANYTHING on that made you feel strange?"

"No!" Danny growled as he walked out the closet door, only to trip on the hem of his pants, falling to the ground with a yelp and a thump. "I told you." He sighed and pulled himself to his feet. "And you know what else is funny? I went ghost just fine to talk to the twins. It was only after I started talking to them that I...er..." He paused and cleared his throat, "changed," he finished.

"Do you think it might have something to do with them?" Jazz asked.

"I don't know." Danny furrowed his brow. "I don't think so."

"Er, look." Tucker glanced at his watch. "It's kind of late. Mom said I could stay until midnight, your parents sent me home, or you woke up. I'm surprised they even let me stay that late...and that's only because there's no school tomorrow."

Danny smiled up at him. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"For sticking around."

"Hey, no problem," Tucker shrugged. "What are best friends for? Later!"

"Are you sure you don't want my dad to drive you home?" Danny asked.

Tucker paled slightly. "No thanks. It's safer to walk."

Danny chuckled. "See ya later then," he called after his friend, who vanished down the hall. Then he turned to Jazz, who still looked like a statue he'd seen in a museum once, about a man in deep thought.

"Er, Jazz?" He cleared his throat again, rubbing the back of his neck absent-mindedly. Jazz blinked and looked up at him, showing that he had her attention. "How are Sam and Paulina?"

Jazz nodded knowingly before answering. "When I went downstairs, Mom told me that she and Dad got a call from Paulina's parents wanting them to come and check her out. She turned up at the Nasty Burger with no memory."

"That's good," Danny sighed, looking much more relieved. "And Sam?" His sister's cringe brought back every single negative thought he'd had before.

"I've never seen her so angry. She wouldn't talk to anyone, not even Tucker, and just stalked off after Mom and Dad checked her for ectoplasmic residue samples and safety."

Danny sighed dejectedly. "Well, any chance of patching things up just went down the drain," he muttered, sitting down on his bed.

"You know, you can change now."

"Huh?" He looked up, confused and more than a little surprised.

"You can get ready for bed. You don't have to keep wearing your clothes."

"Oh, right." He looked down at his pants and shoes, staring at them for several minutes before he felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up into his sister's smiling face.

"Danny, don't worry about it now, okay? Just rest. We'll figure this all out tomorrow."

"Alright, Jazz," he sighed again and slowly rose to his feet.

"Goodnight, Danny," she whispered as she shut the door.

"'Night, Jazz."


	14. Rescuing Ashlynn

The clock read 2:15 in blaring red numerals. Danny found himself lying awake, his mind racing through bouts of fear, anger, depressed and frustration. Yet no matter how he looked at the situation, he couldn't find a solution to the problem. How could he, if he didn't even know what was going on with his powers? Why had all of this happened so suddenly? What brought it on? Sure he'd been having some rotten luck lately, but did that merit going postal on everyone? Not to mention, on top of everything else, he didn't have long before his ghost energies built beyond his ability to contain them.

Just like before.

He'd be forced to transform if he built up too much energy and aggression, and everyone would have to go through that nightmare again. Would he have to do this for the rest of his life? Would he reach a point where he could control the transformations? Would this end up being a one-time thing? He didn't dare try to change into his ghost form and see. Should he finally tell his parents? Would they be able to help? Could he somehow suppress his other side? The side that reminded him of his alternate future... He shuddered at that thought, but one more idea refused to leave him alone:

Had everything he'd gone through with Clockwork been for nothing?

Every attempt to relax and calm himself and get some sleep, only made him feel more frustrated...which was the last thing he needed. Sighing, he rolled over in a vain attempt to find a more comfortable position, his fevered mind hyperaware of every lump and wrinkle in the bed. He knew that all of this worrying was pointless. He knew that it didn't help him and that he had to sleep. He had to. He couldn't figure out elementary algebra on his own, and tomorrow he needed to solve a problem most of the world couldn't handle.

"Come on, Fenton," he growled at himself. "Get some sleep so you CAN figure out what's going o--" He stopped, watching his breath fog and rise up before him, visible even in the darkness. "Oh no..." he gulped and shot straight up. "Not good." The Fenton Thermos lay across the room, stuffed in his backpack where he'd put it earlier, and he had no other weapons at hand...he'd never really needed them before.

Well, if he lived through this, that would change.

Somehow, although he couldn't see anything, he felt the ghost approaching. With a hiss, he threw the covers off and started toward his backpack, only to be stopped dead in his tracks by a freezing voice.

"WHERE IS MY SISTER!" the harsh voice growled, sending shivers up his spine. Danny looked down to see two green eyes phasing through a pile of socks he'd left on the floor.

He gulped again. "A-Abby?"

"Well!" She moved closer to him, glowering in the darkness. Danny leaned away, realizing just how eerie ectoplasmic eyes looked in the dark.

"Er...uh...I think she's downstairs," he responded quickly.

"You think?" Abby's voice hit him like a sheet of ice, and he couldn't help but wince.

"I--" he started, cut off by her yanking him forward by his shirt to stare at her face-to face.

"Then you'd better change so you can come with me, just in case she's not!"

Danny felt himself grow cold at her suggestion. "I-I can't," he managed to get out, barely.

"What?" she hissed.

The half-ghost felt his teeth set. He wouldn't change, and no one could make him. "I can't change, okay!" he spat out, suddenly angry, and pushed her hands away.

"You changed just fine earlier." He could hear the poison in her voice grow, but at the moment he didn't really care

"Look, I just can't." He slumped back onto his bed with his arms folded. He could see an outline of Abby with what little light came from the sliver of visible moon through the window, but he didn't dare to even use something as insignificant his night vision for fear of what it could do to him. The ghost sense was bad enough.

Suddenly, a glowing green spear appeared in her hands, providing him with plenty of light, although he immediately wished it had stayed dark--when he couldn't see the look on her face, everything felt safer.

"Listen, ghost boy," she said through clenched teeth, "you'd better help me get my sister back, or I'll make you regret ever having become half-ghost."

"Too late," Danny muttered as he glanced warily at the spear.

Abby blinked. "Excuse me?"

"I said 'too late.' Look," he let out another long sigh, "about the transformation...that wasn't me, tonight. Well, it was, but it wasn't."

"You're not making any sense," Abby replied dryly, but she did look slightly more calm.

Emphasis on 'slightly'.

Danny thought for a few moments, until he realized that there was no way to put his thoughts into coherent form, so he simply launched into it.

"I don't want to be that person. I know what I'm capable of when I...don't care. That scares me almost as much as losing my family, and far more than you, or any other ghost, ever could." Abby's spear disappeared as she blinked at Danny. "It's all my fault, and I'm sorry. Everything that happened, it's all me, so I'll help you out, as long as you promise to leave when we're done. I don't care where you go."

Abby looked down, not quite sure what to think of his proposal. "How can you help me?" she asked, finally.

Danny slid off of his bed and began pacing. "First, I need to know if my parents are up or not." He walked over to the door and opened it quietly, peeking around the corner. "Their door's open, which means they're still working in the lab. Dang it." He shut the door again, and resumed pacing. "We need a distraction. I could get her out if I had a few minutes..." He stopped suddenly and looked over at Abby expectantly.

"I get it," Abby sighed. "But it's worth it if I get Ashlynn back."

"Just distract them for a few minutes." Danny nodded at the window. "Meet me back here after that, okay?" She nodded and turned to face the outside wall, when Danny spoke up again. "Oh, and weave around a lot. They'll be right on your tail the whole time. Trust me, I know."

A slight, if sarcastic, smile touched her lips for a fleeting moment before she took a deep breath. Vaguely, Danny wondered if other ghosts needed to breathe or not, and made a mental note to observe the next time he could actually talk to a ghost without destroying half the town.

"Right," she said finally, signifying she was ready.

"Okay, go!" Danny said, and ran over to the door, throwing it open with a bang. "MOM! DAD! GHOST!"

He saw Abby vanish out of the corner of his eye and counted off in his head. "Six, five, four, three, two--"

"WHERE?" Both of his parents stormed down the hall and through Danny's bedroom door.

"That way!" Danny pointed near the window Abby had disappeared through. "I think it was one of the other ghosts from tonight!"

"Come on!" both adults yelled at the same time, managing to dent Danny's door slightly on the way out, and nearly knocking down a tired-looking Jazz at the same time. Yelping, she dove out of the way, looking up to see her parents already gone, and Danny starting down the stairs after them.

"Wait." She stood up. Danny stopped and turned to look at her over his shoulder. "What was that all about?" From her reaction, he knew immediately that she knew he was hiding something. "Danny," she warned, crossing her arms and sending a stern glare his way.

Danny folded. "I'm helping Abby get her sister back, okay?" Even he winced at his wording. And, as expected, Jazz reacted less than favorably.

"YOU WHAT?" she shrieked and grabbed his arms, spinning him around to face her. "ARE YOU CRAZY?"

"No," he said meekly, trying to shrug away from her grip.

"Danny!" The red-head dropped him and ran a hand through her hair. "How do you know they're not triggering your...er..." she paused and Danny closed his eyes, bracing himself. "Your dark side," she said slowly. He had to resist the urge to quote Darth Vader, figuring that wouldn't go over very well at the moment.

Instead, he shook his head. "I don't think they are, Jazz."

"And you're willing to stake the safety of the entire world on that?" she asked dryly, folding her arms pointedly. Danny gulped, wide-eyed. He hadn't quite thought of it that way. He wasn't sure he wanted to think of it now.

"Thanks, Jazz." He matched her tone, hoping that she didn't catch the uncertainty in his words.

Still, he'd made a promise, and he intended to keep it. Besides, he'd love the chance to prove Jazz wrong.

"Danny." He suddenly realized Jazz had spoken again. "You have to think these things through."

"I can't," he responded, glancing back at his clock. Had this conversation only been two minutes long? He could have sworn that he'd been standing here longer. "I made a promise. You have two choices: you can come with me, and make sure nothing happens, or you can stay out of my way." And with that, he turned on his heels and sprinted down the stairs, leaving Jazz calling after him.

"Danny!" She took a step after him, but he ignored her completely. Jazz felt her fists clench as worry and frustration bombarded her stomach. "That boy is going to get us all killed!"

She stood there, fuming for a few seconds, trying to calm down. After some major counting, she swallowed her pride and raced down the steps after him, hoping for the first time in her life that she was wrong.

"Ouch!" Danny yelped quietly, having jammed his foot under the counter. He yanked it out and ignored the throbbing, running down the last set of stairs, jumping the last few steps and hitting the basement floor, hard.

"Dang it," he hissed, but again he ignored the pain and stood up, looking around the hurriedly abandoned lab. He spotted Ashlynn almost immediately. Her cage sat almost dead center of the eerily lit lab, surrounded by a ghost shield.

"At least I can handle this," Danny muttered to himself.

"Danny!" Jazz called. He could hear her pounding down the stairs, through the front room and into kitchen, obviously coming after him. With a gulp he ran through the ghost shield, biting his lip against the shock that came from being half ghost.

Once inside, he reached for the door and the large padlock that covered it. It sparked in reaction, and he jumped back to see a new field of spectral energy that he hadn't seen before—energy giving off an aura that Danny had long since learned not to touch.

He didn't know where the keys were, nor could he even begin to guess at what the combination lock was.

That meant ghost powers.

And the energy prevented him from getting close and phasing through, which meant energy blasts.

Cringing, he took a deep breath and aimed his finger at the offending obstacle, trying not to remember that with the wrist guards, every time he'd used his ghost powers, he'd grown angrier. The more anger he had, the harder it got to control his powers.

But he'd promised.

Cocking his finger like a water gun, he shot a blast that hit dead on the mark, melting the metal padlock clear through. He sighed when he realized he didn't feel any effects until...

"DANNY!" He jumped and turned at Jazz's voice, trying to hide his smoking finger. She stood at the foot of the stairs with her hands on her hips. If her glare had been daggers before, she shot flaming shish-kabobs at him now. "You know you shouldn't be using your powers in your condition! What if you would have sent them off...or...something," she stuttered.

"Stop treating me like I'm made of glass or something!" Danny growled back at her.

"Danny, you're not thinking straight!" Jazz argued, walking towards him.

"Why not?"

"Because!"

"Because I'm risking everything to keep a promise!" Danny yelled. 'They're not setting me off! Why don't you trust me?" Jazz opened her mouth to respond just as Danny's ghost sense went off again.

"They're right behind me!" A new voice cut through the echoes of their argument. Turning, they both looked up to see Abby dive straight at the cage.

"No! WAIT!" Danny and Jazz yelled at the same time, but too late. Abby struck the ghost shield and let out a pained shriek.

Danny looked up at his sister with a pleading look. "Jazz, please?"

Jazz closed her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. "You owe me one, Danny," she muttered and walked over to the cage. "You deactivate the ghost shield, and I'll stop whatever's on over here."

"Thanks, Jazz," Danny smiled and dashed over to the control panel. In seconds, the shield dropped and the glow around the cage died. Abby darted in as soon as Jazz threw the cage door open.

"Abby?" Ashlynn's muted voice mumbled as her sister gently picked her off of the harsh, cage floor.

"Get out of here!" Jazz told her, hoping she didn't sound too harsh. Werther Abby noticed her tone or not, she nodded and phased up and out of the lab, carrying her limp twin in her arms

Danny walked over to Jazz cautiously. "Look, Jazz, thanks. I--"

"Shh!" Jazz hissed, her face going several shades paler. What sounded like a herd of elephants came thundering through the door. "Mom and Dad...they're home!"


	15. Relapse

Cheese and crackers, I haven't updated this for an entire MONTH!

Sorry for the long absence, but I had some problems with contacting my beta. But that's all fixed now, so here's more! Hope y'all like it. Let me know whatcha think!

-----

"What do we do?" Jazz looked at her little bother, her eyes wide with fear. "If they find us here, and no ghost..." She let the sentence hang, knowing they both could imagine the consequences, and neither one of them wanted to.

Upstairs they heard Jack's voice boom through the house. "The trail goes downstairs!"

"We can't get caught!" Danny agreed, his voice almost pleading.

Jazz caught his tone and looked over at him, shocked. "Danny, no!" she protested, but too late. Danny had already grabbed her hand and had turned them invisible, just as their parents almost flew through the door.

They both stopped and stared at the empty cage in horror, their faces simultaneously twisting into masks of anger.

"HOW COULD SHE GET AWAY!" Jack yelled while Maddie silently boiled beside him. The last time Danny had seen his mom in this mood...well, he preferred not to think about that. Fortunately he had never met her like that in his Ghost form...and he hoped for his own sake and safety that he never would.

"There's another ecto-signature in the room," she said quietly, looking down at a smaller version of whatever her husband held. "It's the ghost kid! He set her free!"

"WHAT! When I find that kid I'm gonna--" Whatever he said was lost to Danny, who flew through the ceiling, carrying Jazz with him. She gasped at the sudden sensations of floating and phasing, but managed not to let anything too loud slip out of her mouth until they'd landed on Danny's floor, trying not to trip on an overturned pile of textbooks.

They waited in the darkness for several seconds before relaxing. Danny let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, and ran a hand through his hair.

Jazz, on the other hand, wore a blank face that Danny knew covered seething emotions. He instinctively stepped away out of self-preservation.

"What?" he asked cautiously.

"Hmm, let's see," Jazz snarled, jabbing her finger at him like a weapon. "You only just put yourself at risk, along with me AND the rest of the ENTIRE PLANET, by my count THREE TIMES in the last FIVE MINUTES! Not to mention, you did this to help a GHOST who might be part of WHY all of this is HAPPENING!"

Danny continued to shrink back against the dresser, trying not to step on any of his half-finished model rockets, among other things, but not daring to take his eyes off of his sister.

"Jazz, I--"

"Until you can figure out what's going on," she interrupted, "you'd better not use your powers...at all. Because if you do, I will tell Mom and Dad about them."

Danny's world stopped spinning as her words hit him. For several seconds, he could only stare at her, stunned, then several thoughts seemed to rush through his mind.

Hadn't she promised not to tell? Hadn't it been her idea not to blab his secret? How could she threaten to do this? How could she even THINK about threatening to do this? How could she have lied to him? How could she betray him...?

"You wouldn't," he countered, his voice a low, harsh whisper.

"It's happening again!" Jazz pointed to his eyes, neither one now willing to back down. "They're red again! As long as you're a danger to yourself and the town, yes, I WOULD tell them." Danny stood, seething at his sister, getting angrier and angrier until his mouth seemed to open of its own accord.

"I can't believe you! You're just like Sam! It's intriguing to finally realize that Ms. Smarty Pants, also known as the most intelligent girl in school, has to resort to blackmail to ensure her way."

Jazz sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "Danny, I'm not doing this just to get my way! I'm doing this to protect you! Until we can find out what's going on--"

"Fine," Danny interrupted as he turned his back on her and began to stalk rigidly out of the room.

"Where are you going?" she asked, her hands finding their place at her hips again.

"Away from you," Danny responded, not even bothering to look at her. At the door, he stopped and glanced back over his shoulders, red eyes still glinting in the darkness. "Don't follow me."

"Danny--"

"I mean it, Jazz," he warned and slammed the door behind him.

Jazz resumed rubbing her temple with a sigh. "I hope he doesn't call my bluff."

xoxox

Danny tromped down to the front room just in time to see his parents shutting the door behind them, yelling something about getting the ghosts and the ghost boy.

This did very little to improve his mood, which did even less to improve his situation, and he knew it.

He knew it.

His eyes opened wide before he put his hand over his face. Suddenly depression piled on top of everything else. He felt alone and trapped in a situation he couldn't even begin to find a way out of. With a growl of frustration, he slammed his hand against the door frame.

"I have got to figure this out!" he said to himself, trying unsuccessfully to calm down. "And no one will help me! No one CAN help me." He sighed, feeling suddenly deflated, and flopped onto the front room couch.

Then an idea popped into his head.

Clockwork. He could get the Specter Speeder and...

Danny didn't even bother finishing the thought. The Specter Speeder had been taken apart to build the Mini Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle. He had no way to get to Clockwork without that or his ghost powers...and he didn't trust himself to use those right now, although it pained him like nothing else to admit that Jazz was right. If he had anything to say about it, she would never find out that he agreed with her.

It occurred to him that she'd saved his butt too many times for him to really stay mad at her normally, and the same with everyone else...even Dash. Especially Sam. How long had his...condition been affecting him? Is that why he felt so hurt by everyone around him? Even his friends, whom he'd thought nothing could faze. They'd gone through so much together, everything from battling his future Evil Self down to the Box Ghost.

With another sigh, he forced those thoughts aside and tried to come up with another plan. He found himself rather surprised when another idea came to him fairly quickly. He could take some of the jet-packs that his dad stashed for singular, short-range travel in the Ghost-zone, but it took him almost an hour to reach Clockwork when he could fly normally, and he felt rather confident that the little jets would never reach 112 miles per hour. He didn't even know how much fuel they had. If only the Time Master lived closer...of course he could also be watching right now.

Danny turned his eyes up towards the darkened ceiling. "Little help?" he asked, looking around. "Hello? Clockwork?" He strained his hearing to listen for the slightest movement, and his eyes continued to scan for the blue and white portal that appeared whenever Clockwork decided to visit, but the room remained dark. "Please?" he whispered, his voice coming out as a plea, but still, he got nothing.

"Why can't you be closer!" Danny suddenly rose to his feet, yelling at the Darkness. "Why can't you answer me? I need help! HELLO!"

Again, nothing.

"Why?" Danny asked, his voice quieting down as he shuffled his way into the kitchen. "Why?" Clockwork was really the only ghost friend he knew of...unless...

"Clarice," he suddenly whispered to himself. She didn't live more than 10 minutes flight away from the portal. Albeit straight down, and you had to be able to pick the right door out of about a hundred in her "community," but he'd found the place before. He could do it again, and she'd helped him last time.

With a new determination in his eyes, Danny stood up straight and marched down to the lab. His parents had left the ghost shield on again, but nothing he couldn't handle.

As he stepped back into the lab he'd just left, one might've said his face was carved from stone. He strode up to the small closet near one of the room's corners and opened the door. Inside, hanging neatly and in color order, hung five haz-mat suits. The Fenton family's personal stock. Color-coded emergency use. One for each of his parents, two for Jazz and one for him.

There were supposed to be two in there for each person. Jazz never wore hers and his parents switched theirs out all the time. He'd claimed to have lost his other one, but in all actuality, it remained with him wherever he went.

The suit's colors had been inverted, and now sported a white "DP" symbol on the chest : The suit that Sam had thrown at him the day he stepped into the portal.

The day his life changed forever.

With grim determination, he reached up and pulled the brand-new, if a little dusty, white and black suit off the hanger before shutting the door. He shoved his legs into the resistant material, not bothering to take his pants or shoes off. He didn't feel he really needed to, despite the fact that his Levis crumpled at the bottom.

Zipping up the suit, he walked over to another closet. He pulled several belts and pouches out of this one, selecting a few to strap onto his person, and finally pulled out what looked like a small rocket pack.

He strapped this on like a backpack and turned to face the portal.

"Fine. If Jazz wants me to figure out what's wrong, then I will." He reached up to his chest, pulled off the picture of his father that had been placed on the suit, and shoved it into his pocket, then dove into the portal with one last comment:

"No matter what."


	16. Not a good idea

He couldn't go fast enough.

Plain and simple. The ecto-pack (or the Fenton Ecto Rocket, as it had been labeled) kept him going forward, but at a fraction of the speed that he normally flew through the Ghost Zone. That ten-minute flight had stretched to almost half an hour already, and he did not like being in the Ghost Zone when he felt so vulnerable.

_Change! _a voice kept urging him in the back of his mind...the same voice that had been there since the wrist-guard incident. He ignored it, despite its persistence. _You know you want to,_ it teased and taunted, almost like a fleeting shadow only he could see or hear.

Instead of responding to it, he focused on his position, and adjusted course slightly, positive he was headed in the right direction. At least he was sure about _something_.

"Still," he said quietly to himself, "maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. If I run into someone--"

"Hello, ghost child," a familiar, deep voice stopped him dead in his tracks as Skulker appeared directly in front of him.

Danny cringed. "Like him." Quickly, he reached for an ecto-gun on his belt and brought it out, pointing it directly at the metal-clad ghost hunter. "Get back, Skulker!" he said with more bravado than he felt.

Skulker merely raised an eyebrow and studied him for a few seconds. "What brings you to the Ghost Zone as a human?" he asked, keeping his distance.

The question caught Danny slightly off guard. "Er...I was just testing out some new machines my parents made."

Skulker rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That's not it. I've seen you use all of these devices before, or at least heard of them." Realization suddenly dawned on his robotic face. "You can't use your ghost powers, can you?" That quickly, Danny felt his stomach harden into ice. For a moment, he almost wanted to look behind him to make sure Klemper wasn't floating behind him, but he didn't dare take his eyes off of Skulker. The ghost hunter wasted no time. With a booming laugh, he raised his arm and sent a net flying at Danny, who yelped and fired at it while throttling upwards, hoping to miss the net if the ecto-blasts didn't work.

They didn't.

The net absorbed the gun's energy as it sped towards him. For a moment, he thought he might've dodged successfully, until he felt it hit his feet, taking his upwards momentum and throwing him forward...directly into Skulker's outstretched hand.

The metallic hand closed around Danny's neck and held him fast, barely allowing him to breathe. Skulker raised an eyebrow at him, half smirking, half disappointed. "All too easy."

He shook his head at Danny's struggle to break free. When he reached for another weapon, Skulker saw it and tightened his grip around Danny's throat. Instinctively, he brought his hands up to the hand in a vain attempt to loosen the robo-ghost's grasp.

"You know," Skulker brought him closer with a sigh. "You're pretty helpless without your powers and your friends. Where are they, by the way?" He looked behind him as if expecting to see someone sneaking up behind him. "I would have expected them coming to your rescue by now."

"I--" Danny gasped. "They..."

"Why aren't they here, ghost boy?"

"Tucker...," he choked out and squeezed his eyes shut as his best friend's smiling face flashed across his mind. Then, another face followed directly behind it, a face with shockingly violet eyes framed by black hair.

His eyes snapped open, glowing a deep red.

"Sam..." he said, not noticing the strain it took to say the word. "Jazz," he growled as his sister's face completed the parade in his imagination. "You know," he said to the other ghost as a confident smile crossed his face, "You shouldn't have said that."

"Why--" Skulker started, but was cut off as an ecto-blast from his captive's hands sent him careening backwards into a nearby rock formation. Danny didn't even realize he'd pushed the throttle yet again, following after the flailing, dazed ghost while charging up another ecto-blast in his hands. A cruel laugh escaped his lips as he closed on his captor turned prey. He shot his hands forward, catching Skulker just as he was beginning a recovery.

The ghost screamed a long, metallic cry of pain, but the ecto-blast didn't stop until most of his circuits had fried, and he found himself barely able to move.

Finally, Danny let up, and Skulker fell, smoking, to the ground below.

"And he says I'm easy?" Danny scoffed, following directly after. "Any last words?" he asked, slowing down to hover just above Skulker's fallen body.

"When," the mechanical head lifted up, "when did you start taking lessons from Plasmius?"

"I never..." Danny started, but faded off and looked down at his hand. "Oh man." he continued to stare at his black glove as his eyes faded to blue. With everything that had just happened, he hadn't even changed forms, thankfully.

Skulker looked away, and sat, cringing, waiting for an opportunity to eject from his suit. When the expectant blast never came, he managed to turn the head up to look at where Danny had been floating above him, only to see the empty Ghost Zone.

"Huh?" he asked. An arm flopped, failing to obey the impulse to scratch his head.

Then, counting his blessings, he decided to get to work at salvaging the suit.

He also put a note in the database: "Do not mention the ghost child's friends during the next confrontation."

Still more than a little shaken, Danny floated down to a particular door with a mailbox outside of it. He'd never seen it before. Had there always been a mailbox there, or had he just been too caught up in his own problems to notice it?

With another sigh, he floated in front of the door for a few seconds, still trying to calm himself down, and glancing back to see if Skulker had decided to follow.

He only saw empty space.

"Good," he muttered to himself. "The last thing I need is one of my enemies chasing me around." With one final deep breath, he knocked loudly on the door, then waited for an answer.

He didn't have to wait long before a young woman with green skin and fairly long, dark hair opened the door, blinking bright green eyes in surprise.

"Danny," she said, not bothering to hide her shock.

"Er, hi," he muttered, suddenly realizing how stupid he must look.

Seeing his nervousness, she smiled and opened the door, stepping forward to face him more fully. This brought her red leather jacket-clad, t-shirt and jeans-clothed frame into full view. Danny couldn't help but smile. Out of all the ghosts he'd ever met, Allie had been one of the most normal...taking into account that when he had first met her, she had been levitating objects around a pawn shop. Still, she had a human look, but also a human personality when she wasn't thoroughly ticked at someone. She had also been one of the few ghosts to listen to him, and actually accept him as a friend.

He didn't consider her close. More of an acquaintance really, but she was one person he knew wouldn't shoot, arrest or zap him on sight.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, looking past him, obviously looking for anyone accompanying him. "Alone?" She blinked. "And in human mode! What are you, insane or desperate!"

"Um..." Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "I was actually looking for Clarice..."

Allie blinked and shook her head questioningly. "Why would you look for her here? This is my lair."

"Because she was here last time I came..." He cleared his throat.

"Oh, right." Understanding washed over her features. "Yeah, she'd come by for a visit when I had to leave on the spur of the moment, so she stuck around. Why?"

Danny cleared his throat. "Well I...er...uh..." What was he supposed to say? 'Hi, I've been turning back into an evil ghost lately that wants to take over the world and the ghost zone. Can you help me?'

"Is everything all right?" she asked, her voice suddenly concerned

Danny sighed. "No."

"What's wrong?"

"I...I just wanted some advice." He slumped, again feeling utterly deflated.

"On what?" He looked up to see Allie watching him like she sincerely wanted to help. That did brighten his mood slightly. Emphasis on the word "slightly".

"It's difficult to explain..." He forced a smile.

"Try me."

Danny blinked. How was he supposed to tell all of this to someone he barely knew? And a ghost, no less. Still, he needed help, and he felt like he could trust her. With another sigh, he shoved his reservations back and opened his mouth.

"Well...did Clarice tell you why I came by last time?"

The black-haired ghost blinked and shrugged. "Yeah. She told me everything. And," her expression suddenly turned mockingly annoyed, "she'll be happy to hear that you're alright."

"Heh." Danny forced an embarrassed smile. "Er...um...sorry." Allie snickered, but gestured for him to continue. "Well, actually, it has to do with that."

"With what?" She looked at his hands. "She mentioned something about...red gloves magnifying your powers. You got them off, didn't you?"

"Well, yeah."

"But..." she prodded.

"In the last few days I've been--"

"Wait," she held up a hand, causing Danny to look up at her again.

"What?"

"This sounds like it's gonna take a while. Why don't you come in?" She smiled and stepped aside. Danny felt a small smile touch his own lips.

"Thanks," he responded and floated in.

* * *

Nope, no big cliffy here. :D Feel loved. Anywho, I already have my next chapter back from my beta reader, so I'm going to be getting it up Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

Let me know what you think! Luv and Hugz!


	17. Soft Spot

"So let me get this straight." Allie held up a finger after Danny had finished explaining the entire day to her. Hard to believe that so much had happened since lunch the previous day. Not even 24 hours and it felt like an eternity. He also found himself surprised at how easily he spilled his guts to this ghost he'd only met twice. He couldn't figure out whether it was desperation or trust; probably a little of both. He tended to trust people until they proved they didn't deserve it…like with Vlad.

All of this flashed through his mind in about two seconds as Allie continued. "You got rid of the magnifying things—."

"Magnifiers," Danny muttered.

"Whatever," she waved a hand through the air, brushing it off, "you got rid of them. They were what made you go evil—" Danny cringed at that, but she either ignored it or didn't notice, "—before, and you didn't have any problems until these two ghosts showed up?"

Danny slumped even further on the glowing green couch she'd offered as a seat. "Yeah," he sighed.

"But you said you changed to your ghost form just fine to talk to them, right?"

"That's what I can't figure out, and that's why my sister thinks they're behind everything."

Allie tapped her lips thoughtfully. "I can see why she would think that, but from what you said of them, I doubt it."

"That's what I told her." Danny smirked slightly, staring at the floor.

"That doesn't mean she's not right," the ghost sighed and curled her legs up under her. "It wouldn't be the first time a ghost, or two ghosts in this case, manipulated the feelings of humans and other ghosts." Danny didn't answer, still refusing to meet her eyes. "What do you think?" she finally asked.

He looked up for the first time since finishing his story. "I don't think they are. I mean, yeah they can be a bit annoying, but no more so than me, Sam and Tuck at our worst…and Jazz at her best. They seem like decent ghosts to me. A little weird maybe, but what ghost isn't?"

"Thanks," Allie folded her arms and shot him a dry look.

"Er…sorry," Danny stuttered. "I didn't…I mean, I didn't mean…I mean…"

Allie's laugh cut him off. "Don't worry about it." He looked down again with an embarrassed smile as her own features sobered.

"To tell the truth," she sat forward, "I have one other thought as to what it could be."

"What?" Danny asked in a tired, resigned voice.

"It almost sounds like you've developed a 'soft spot'."

"A what?"

"You know how I have problems with people…insulting me?" she asked, taking a deep breath afterwards as if just saying those words had been difficult and upsetting.

Danny remembered back to when he'd first met Allie. He'd been walking home with Sam and Tucker when his ghost sense had gone off. He'd found her in a pawn shop, levitating practically every item in the place and hurling them in turn at the front desk where the cashier had been hiding.

"Yeah." Danny nodded slowly. "I remember…I think." He'd found out later that the cashier had accidentally insulted Allie. For a ghost, Danny thought she usually seemed like a very normal person, but Allie's friend, Clarice, had explained that insults were Allie's 'trigger.' Every ghost had one, she said. Some of them called it a 'soft spot,' but whatever name it went by, it meant a topic that never failed to set off a ghost's temper, turning them malevolent and dangerous no matter how benign they normally seemed.

"Maybe it's something like that." She shrugged and leaned back in her armchair. "I don't know if a half-ghost would have a problem with that, though."

Danny bit his lip, thinking back. "I guess it could be…" he said uncertainly. "But then, what would my 'soft spot' be?"

"What were you talking about at the time?"

"I…er…don't really remember." He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling embarrassed and annoyed at the same time.

The dark-haired ghost looked up thoughtfully. "Hmm," she puzzled to herself, and stood up. After a glance at Danny, she crossed the glowing, but otherwise perfectly normal one-room apartment to a fridge and opened it. "Doing things helps me to think," she explained. "Would you like something to drink? Eat perhaps?"

Danny blinked and shook his head hastily. He'd seen what ghosts ate when he'd been captured by Walker, and he wasn't sure he ever wanted to see it again. "No thanks."

She shrugged and went about getting herself a glass of some glowing liquid. Did EVERYTHING have to glow? he thought to himself.

"Has it happened again since then? Even in your human form?" she asked as she returned from the other side of the room.

Danny looked away, choosing once again to find something interesting on the light-purple, carpeted floor. "Yeah." He couldn't seem to make himself speak above a whisper. "It seems to happen whenever I mention my friends."

"I see." She took a sip from the glass. "Well, what's been happening with your friends recently?"

"Well, everything's fine with Tucker. He's been my best friend since grade school," Danny shrugged. "He's annoying sometimes, but he's always been there for me. I couldn't ask for a better best friend."

"Okay," his hostess urged. "And your other friends?"

Sam's face flashed across his mind and he felt his hands tighten into fists. "My other so-called friend quite literally blurted out my secret in front of the entire school when she got angry," he ground out. He expected an answer, but when none came, he simply continued. "I can't believe she would do that. She's never done anything like that before. It's not like her…but she did."

"You know, Danny," Allie said slowly from across the room. He looked up, still seething, to see her point to her own eyes. "Red is not your color."

"Huh?" he asked, too preoccupied with rage to make the connection.

She raised an eyebrow as she returned to her chair and sat down, eyeing him warily. "Looks like half-ghosts can get soft spots after all."

He figured it out, fury abating in the face of deep thought. "So…it is Sam?" he asked, suddenly unsure of what to think of this information. It seemed right…except when Jazz had threatened to expose his secret. "But it also happened when I was talking to my sister—."

"How did you feel?" Allie interrupted, setting her glass down on the floor beside her chair and leaning forward.

Now she had him _really_ confused. "Huh?"

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "How did you feel? When Sam did that."

"My best friend betrayed me. How am I supposed to feel?" he growled.

"So you feel betrayed?"

Danny blinked. Hadn't he just said that? "Yeah…I guess so."

"Think back on all the times you changed. Did you feel the same way then?" Danny closed his eyes, thinking back. When he'd been talking to the twins, it had been about Sam and their fight, he remembered that now. Then Jazz threatening to expose him to his parents…and then both of them with Skulker.

"Yeah…" He opened his eyes in surprise. "Yeah, I did."

"You are such a typical guy," Allie laughed and shook her head again.

"What do you mean by that?" Danny asked, confused again, and not sure if he should be offended or not..

"Don't worry about it." She sat back in her chair, still giggling.

He watched her, mystified. After a few seconds he cleared his throat and spoke again. "So, what do I do?"

Allie looked over at him incredulously. "Isn't it obvious? You talk to your sister and your friend until you've forgiven them, or you don't feel betrayed anymore."

"That's it?" Danny asked.

"It's not as easy as it sounds."

"It never is," he muttered.

"Look." Allie smiled and stood up again. "Why don't you go home and sleep on it. You'll figure out what to say."

Danny sighed and stood as well. "Thanks. I really appreciate your help."

"No problem," she grinned and brushed off his thanks while seeming to take it in at the same time. "Any time you have a ghost-related problem you can talk to me."

"That means a lot to me," Danny smiled as he walked towards the door. "Thanks again," he grinned and launched himself back into the ghost zone.

Allie stood at the door, waving at him and shaking her head.

"Boys," she said under her breath, and closed the door.

* * *

As promised, here is the next chapter. :D Hoping to get up more by the end of the week That's dependant on wether my beta reader is really busy or not. crosses fingers

Note: I have a friend (WingsofMorpius) who had her story stolen twice, by two different people, and since then, she has not continued to write the story. To show our support, my friend (with some help from me ;) ) has put up a petition. If you want to check out the story (totally worth it) check out my favorites page, and under "favorite authors" (So I can't spell...so sue me ; ) and then check out "Frights, Camera, Action". If you want to help and show your support for her, let me know and we'll put your name on the petition.

Thanks:hug:

Obi-


	18. Feelings

Danny's journey from Allie's doorway back to the portal took almost an hour. He'd decided that since he couldn't settle into a speed he felt comfortable with (basically anything under the speed of sound), he would try stealth, not that he was any good at that either. Still, it seemed like a better idea then making himself an open target in the middle of the Ghost Zone, when just about anyone could turn up like Skulker had…or worse.

Slowly he made his way from one floating island to another, making sure that if any ghost did see him, they either didn't realize what they saw, or weren't curious enough to investigate. He didn't run into anyone else he knew, thankfully, but still, he couldn't help but feel relieved when his parent's portal came into view.

Throwing caution to the wind, he made a beeline for the swirling vortex, bursting through to the familiar sight of his parent's lab, where he heaved a sigh of relief. It remained just as he left it, except for a figure pacing a hole in the floor. She looked up as he touched down, and their eyes met. Immediately Danny scowled.

"Danny!" Jazz yelped, her voice sounding relieved and reprimanding at the same time. Vaguely, he wondered how she could pull that off, and if it was a trait common to all nosey big sisters. "Where did you go!" she continued, putting her hands on her hips. "I was so worried."

Danny's scowl hardened into a glare. "I'm sure you were," he commented dryly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Her arms moved from her hips to fold in front of her defensively.

"Have you told Mom and Dad yet?" he asked, ignoring her questions.

"Did you use your powers?" she shot back.

Danny couldn't help but smirk as he spoke, "Yes."

"Danny!"

"What?" He returned the glare she shot him and they stood, facing off for several minutes before Jazz finally spoke again.

"Have you figured out what's wrong?"

"Yes," Danny shrugged.

"Then you..." she started, but faded off with a blink before looking back at him. "Wait, what?"

Danny sighed. He knew he'd have to do this sooner or later. "Ghosts call it a "soft spot" or a trigger. It's a weakness to a ghost. One subject you don't touch on around that ghost, and it's different with every ghost."

"Oh," Jazz continued to blink away her surprise. "So...what's yours?"

"Betrayal."

"Huh?"

"You know," Danny heard his voice harden to a growl, "when your older sister threatens to expose your secret after she promised you she wouldn't."

A mixture of horror and guilt washed over her face at his words, and he almost felt sorry for her. He hated to see people look like she did at this moment. It reminded him of the time his father almost hit a deer in the road when he'd been younger.

"You mean...I..." she gulped.

"Yeah, basically," Danny heard himself say, but realized that he lacked the malice that had fueled his words before. He just couldn't stay angry at her when she did this.

"Oh, Danny," she blurted, biting her lip afterwards before continuing more slowly. "Danny, I am SO sorry! I was bluffing so you wouldn't use your powers."

It was Danny's turn to blink. "Bluffing?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes." She dropped her eyes and looked at the ground. "I would only ever consider telling Mom and Dad if I felt I had no other choice. I'm sorry. I really am.

"You see," she finally looked up slowly, meeting his eyes. "I'm so scared for you all of the time, and I'm just trying to look out for you. You're my little brother."

"Nosey and overprotective," Danny muttered with an involuntary smile. He suddenly felt cleaner, like he'd been pushed into a mud hole and then taken a shower.

"You said you wouldn't have it any other way," she pointed out with a slight blush.

The half-ghost couldn't help but laugh out loud. "I guess you're right."

"So, you forgive me?" she asked, a little too hopefully.

"Of course," he said as a warm smile crossed his face. Immediately, the same smile fell on hers.

"Thanks."

After a few minutes of silence, she cleared her throat. "So, it was Sam that set you off before this?"

"Yeah," Danny sighed and looked down. "And I think that's why I went after her too."

"What did she do to make you feel so betrayed?"

"What is it with people and what I feel?" Danny asked, throwing his hands into the air. Jazz just stared at him, so he sighed and went on. "She brought her journal to school. She writes everything in it...including my ghost stuff."

Jazz nodded knowingly. "And let me guess, someone got hold of it."

"Basically," he muttered darkly.

"Then it's a good thing it's Saturday tomorrow," she said, stifling a yawn.

"Why?"

"So you can talk with her as soon as possible."

"How did you know that's how I get over this?" he asked. "I never told you..."

Jazz laughed. "Danny, you are such a typical guy."

-----

Danny stood on Sam's front porch with his arm raised, poised to knock, like he had been for the last 7 minutes. He'd started to lose the feeling in that hand, and yet he couldn't bring himself to lower it, but neither could he bring himself to knock.

_It's not as easy as it sounds_,Allie's words floated across his mind. "She wasn't kidding," he muttered to himself. Here he stood at 9:30 on a Saturday morning, after a fitful night of sleep, and he couldn't help but realize how stupid he felt. What would he say? What would he do? Simply apologize and that would be that? How would she react? He'd never fought with her this badly before, so he couldn't even really guess.

"Danny," he looked over his shoulder at Jazz, who waited impatiently in her car. "You've been standing there for almost 10 minutes! I thought you said you were ready."

Danny sighed. "I am," he said, half to convince himself, half to convince her. If she noticed his uncertainty, she didn't comment on it. Instead, she simply sat back with an encouraging nod.

_Just move your arm forward, Fenton. It's not that hard,_ he told himself silently, ignoring the other voice in the back of his mind, the one that laughed at him.

_You can't do it_, it taunted. _You're too weak._

_Do you ever shut up?_ Danny growled mentally. He only got a cruel laugh in response.

That's what gave him the motivation to knock loudly on the door.

"Danny," he heard Jazz behind him again, "It's a big house. Why don't you—" She stopped, her eyes focused past him.

He turned around to see Sam standing in the doorway, a blank look on her face except for her eyes. He'd seen her angry before, and he'd seen her upset…but none of those expressions touched what he could quite literally feel flowing off of her in waves. Suddenly, he wanted to be anywhere else but there.

"What do you want?" she asked in a voice that could have frozen a fire. He couldn't help but flinch at that.

"I-er-I…deserved that," he gulped as his hand unconsciously rose to rub the back of his neck. "Um…I don't blame you for being upset about last night, and…er…." Okay, that sounded lame, even to him. Well, if he couldn't get this out decently, he may as well just tell her everything.

He cleared his throat. "Well, I'mgoingallfunky'causeIhaveasoftspotandIreallyneedto-talktoyouifIeverwantittostopsopleasetellmethat you'll—"

"Danny," she interrupted, startling him. He looked up to see her roll her eyes. "Slow down."

"Oh," he chuckled nervously, realizing that if he didn't put his arm down, he'd rub his neck raw. "Sorry. I…" He paused and sighed. It had been hard enough to blurt out the first time. "How did she put it?" he muttered to himself.

"Who?" Sam asked.

"Allie," Danny said, biting his lip. "I…look. Every ghost has a weakness. They call it a 'soft spot'."

Sam looked confused. "Soft spot?"

"A subject no one touches on around that ghost, unless you want something like last night to happen." He realized that his hand had returned to the back of his neck, and forced it down to his side.

Sam unfolded her arms and looked at him again, as if seeing him in a new light. "So you…have one?" He nodded, refusing to meet her eyes, instead wondering if she had someone shine her boots, or did it herself to keep them looking as nice as they did. "So," he heard her continue, "why did you come after me?"

"Well." Dang it, did his hand have some sort of magnetism drawing it to the back of his neck? Why did he always do that when he felt nervous? "Well, the journal and—"

"That wasn't my fault!" she interjected, the look of anger again rushing over her features.

"Oh yeah?" Danny asked, looking up at her with glowing red irises. She couldn't help but back away a step, barely realizing he hadn't stopped talking. "Who took the journal to school in the first place?" Sam found herself lifting a finger to retort but he cut her off. "I thought you'd realize that my secret means a lot more than a little extra credit. A lot more."

She sat there with her mouth open, but couldn't think of anything to say. After a minute she watched his eyes fade to blue and he looked down, looking more disappointed than upset or embarrassed.

"Yeah," she started, trying to put some sort of intensity into her voice, "well I…er…" She faded off, leaving both of them in silence.

Danny couldn't look up at her, and he couldn't figure out why. Why did he feel so horrible? He shouldn't have burst out like that. He should have tried to stay calm, or come back later when she'd cooled down or—

"You're right, Danny." Her voice cut into his thoughts, causing his eyes to fly open in surprise. He still couldn't look up at her, but it was more out of shock than anything else. He had not expected this from her at this point. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I guess that because you've been able to keep your secret for so long…I never…well…" He looked up to see her biting her lip, obviously searching for the right words. "I never really thought that anything would happen. I always thought that it could…just that it never _would_.

"I felt horrible, and I still feel that way about the whole thing. That's why I was so mad at you for last night."

She looked up and met his shocked blue eyes, waiting for a response. When nothing came, she decided to say something to fix the uncomfortable silence.

"So…what exactly is your…er, weakness?"

Danny shook his head as if coming out of a daze and again opened his mouth. "Well I—" he started, but stopped when a bluish mist fogged the air in front of him. "No! I don't know if I can go ghost yet!"

"Well, how do you stop yourself from turning into…that?" she asked, still feeling more than a little awkward. Danny didn't notice.

"I have to talk to the person I feel betrayed me," he blurted, recalling his conversation with the ghost girl.

Sam's jaw went slightly slack as she looked at him. "Did you just…tell me how you feel?"

Danny looked around him uncomfortably. "Yeah…"

A smile flitted across her face. "How many girls did you have to talk to before you could say that?" Danny felt his face harden into a glare, but really he couldn't have felt more relieved as he watched her break into a laugh.

"Danny," she gasped after a second, "you are such a typical guy."

"Both Allie and Jazz told me that," he chuckled to himself, noting for the first time in a long time that the voice in the back of his head remained silent, although he could feel it sulking. That had to be a good sign.

"So, do you feel better now that we've talked?" she asked. He glanced back at her smiling face, and couldn't help but smile himself.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do!"

"Then let's go find that ghost!" She grinned and ran past him, grabbing his arm and pulling him down the steps after her, ignoring his cry of protest.

Jazz smiled as they approached her car. "Looks like everything went well. Welcome back," she winked at Sam.

"Um…we still don't know if that fixed the problem," Danny pointed out from behind Sam.

"Hmm," Jazz said thoughtfully, "you've got a point."

"Only one way to find out," Sam sighed and grabbed a thermos from Jazz's back seat. Danny wondered why she had a thermos in her back seat until Sam took the lid off and turned it on him.

Blinking, he jumped back. "Huh!"

"Go ghost," Sam shrugged.

"WHAT!" he yelped.

"Do you have a better idea?" Sam asked calmly. "I'll keep the thermos on so that no matter what, you can't hurt anyone."

"Great," Danny said dryly, crossing his arms. "So I either stay good, or get sucked into a thermos. Way to give support."

Sam shrugged apologetically, matching Jazz's own expression. With a sigh, Danny looked around to make sure no one could see him, and stuck his hands into the air.

"I'm going Ghost!"

-----

Sorry it took so long, but I want you all to know that I"m starting on the sequel to Brainwashed, going to school full time, working grave shift three to four nights a week, and...well...life is a bit hectic to say the least. ; I'm going to get my next chapter up as soon as my beta reader returns it (she promised it would be in the next few days, so yeah). :D

Thank you for sticking around for this long. :hug: It really means a lot to me.


	19. Misunderstanding

Danny sat there for several seconds, his eyes squeezed shut and his muscles flexed in anticipation as he finished transforming.

"Danny?" he finally heard from a reluctant-sounding Sam. Almost not daring to hope, he opened one green eye cautiously.

"Sam?" he asked slowly. "Jazz?"

"How do you feel?" Jazz asked.

Danny rolled his eyes. "I feel fine."

"Think about what made you angry before," she pressed, ignoring his annoyance.

Taking a deep breath, the ghost boy looked down, speaking slowly and deliberately. "Sam and the journal…" Sam and Jazz watched him closely, but nothing changed on him at all. "I still feel okay."

"Good," a voice growled from behind them. Jumping, all three whirled around to see the twins floating in front of Jazz's car. Neither one of them looked very happy. Aslynn bit her lip and looked worriedly at her sister, while Abby glowered.

"Ashlynn, Abby!" Danny blinked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, considering the fact that it took me all night just to wake Ashlynn up, it's not like we could really go anywhere yet," Abby growled.

At this her sister sighed and rolled her eyes. "Abby, jealousy does not suit you, and anger is my department. You're the happy one, remember?"

"Jealousy?" Danny echoed, looking at Sam and Jazz who both had a look of enlightenment on their face.

"That makes so much sense!" Jazz slapped her had to her forehead. Sam just nodded in agreement.

"Okay, what did I miss?" Danny asked, annoyed.

Abby's loud voice answered him. "No one hurts my sister and gets away with it!"

"I know, I know," Ashlynn sighed.

"Hey!" Both girls looked over to see Danny floating above his friends heads looking none too pleased himself. "We risked a lot to get her out of there. The least we can get is a little thanks!"

Abby's face softened slightly, although her voice remained as cold as ever. "I know. That's why I'm not attacking you right now."

Danny couldn't help but stare in wonder. Everything he'd seen about these two would suggest that Abby usually acted carefree and happy, while Ashlynn would remain down to Earth, terse and pessimistic. He was positive he hadn't gotten them mixed up. Ashlynn wore mostly black with cream trimmings while Abby wore just the opposite, not to mention they had slightly different tattoo markings on their face, distinctive enough for even him to tell the differences

"Look," Abby sighed and turned to look at Ashlynn, pouting slightly, "just ask him so we can get out of here, okay?"

"Ask me what?" Danny couldn't help but blink in bewilderment.

Ashlynn shot her sister a hard glare before turning back to him. "Look, we're more than a little confused here, and we'd like to know what exactly is going on…and I'd like to know if you meant what you said about…us." She cleared her throat, looking slightly embarrassed and awkward. "Last night," she finished, not meeting his eyes.

Danny felt his own blush begin and looked down. "Oh," he said finally. "Well…I…" Finally he sighed. No reason not to tell them the truth, especially after all he'd put them through. "Look, I just found out that I have a 'soft spot'…and I., well…it's all sorted out now." He forced himself to look up, unconsciously rubbing the back of his neck again. "The person who asked you that…he's gone…for good hopefully."

"Oh," Ashlynn nodded, looking down sadly. "I see."

"Look," Danny started, but stopped when he heard what sounded like an "oof" from Sam.

"Danny!" he looked down to see Tucker standing above Sam, who glared at him from where she'd fallen.

"Watch where you're going, Tucker," she growled. Smiling slightly to himself, Danny landed next to Sam, and offered a hand to her. She didn't even look, but unconsciously grabbed it while regaining her feet. After a few seconds, she realized what she'd done, and quickly took her hand back, looking away with a blush.

Danny turned back to Abby and Ashlynn, who had both looked away for some reason.

"We'd better go," Ashlynn said sadly. Abby growled in response, and they both turned to fly away until Tucker spoke out.

"Wait!" Surprised, they turned back to see the techno-geek holding what looked like a green, glowing lipstick pointed at them. "Danny, aren't you going to capture them!"

Danny sighed and took a step towards Tucker. "No, Tuck, put it a—whoa!" He cried out as his foot caught on a crack in the pavement, and he sprawled forward, almost hitting Tucker, who jumped and took an involuntary step back. As he did so, his finger brushed the firing mechanism.

"Oops!" Tucker yelped, immediately putting the hand holding the weapon behind his back.

"Away," Danny finished from his resting place on the ground. He looked up at Tucker. "What do you mean, 'oops?'"

Tucker pointed up to where the green blast from the lipstick tube had struck Ashlynn's shoulder, sending her spiraling to the ground with a shriek of pain.

"ASHLYNN!" Abby dropped after her sister, landing on the ground next to where she lay, dazed. "That's it!" she yelled, and turned to face the group, a green spear appearing in her hand. With another shriek of rage, she launched herself into the air, and pointed the spear at Danny. "NO ONE HURTS MY SISTER!"

"Wait!" Danny stumbled to his feet, a sense of desperation coming over him. "It was an accident!"

Abby either didn't hear him, or didn't care enough to respond with more than a growl. Reminding him scarily of Valerie, her eyes flashed red, similar to what he remembered Pointdexter's doing when he'd fought the ghost-nerd at the school for the first time.

"Not good," he muttered to himself as several green beams of energy shot from the edge of the beam towards him.

"MY CAR!" Jazz yelped, diving for cover behind the steering wheel.

He didn't even think as he grabbed his friends and dove behind the car for cover.

"Nice going, Tucker," Sam muttered as they huddled there, listening to the shots from Abby litter the pavement.

"Like I meant to!" he shot back.

"Guys!" Danny cut in. "I've got to go fight her and see if I can get them to listen to me."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right," she muttered. Danny shot her a glare, but continued anyway.

"I need you two to back me up with the thermos, okay?"

"We got your back, dude!" Tucker said with a salute, and pulled his own thermos from his backpack, while Sam nodded and held up the one she'd grabbed from Jazz's back seat.

Danny acknowledged them with a nod, and turned himself intangible and invisible. Phasing through the car, he bounded into the air, dodging the shots she still sent his way, and grabbed her around the waist throwing her off for a moment.

"Abby! Stop!" he said, turning himself visible again.

"What?" the ghost girl shrieked, trying to twist away from him. "NO! ASHLYNN! HELP!"

"Get your hands OFF OF MY SISTER!" he heard another growl from below, and looked down just in time to see Ashlynn raise her own spear, the end of it obviously charged with ectoplasmic energy.

Noticing her mood, Danny decided it would be a good idea to comply. He released his grip on the younger twin, just in time to see Ashlynn's spear shoot one large beam at where he had been…and where Abby now floated.

"LOOK OUT!" he called, but to no avail. The beam struck Abby, who screamed in pain before going limp, and falling.

"ABIGAIL!" Ashlynn shrieked as she shot upwards, arms outstretched to catch her sister before she hit the ground. "Abby, little sister, say something!" she said, lowering herself and her sister to the pavement in front of Jazz's car gently.

Abby opened one eye weakly. "Ow," she mumbled. Ashlynn set her carefully on the sidewalk.

"Is she okay?" Danny asked, landing a little ways away.

"This is all your fault, ghost boy," Ashlynn growled as she stood up, her own eyes now glowing red, devoid of an iris or pupil.

Danny couldn't help but look at her incredulously. "My fault!"

"Yes," she said through gritted teeth as the green spear reappeared in her hands. "And you will not get away from me!"

"Wait," Danny said, backing away, "this was an accident! Can't we talk it out!"

"NO!" Ashlynn yelled and pointed the spear at him.

The white-haired ghost sighed and looked down. "Then I'm really, really sorry about this. Tuck, now!"

Ashlynn whirled to see Tucker jump out from behind the car, the thermos's beam landing on her recovering sister. "Abby! NO!" She yelped and lunged for Abby's arm, trying to pull her out of the thermos' path, but as soon as she touched her sister's arm, the white/blue light enveloped her as well.

"What?" she said, trying to back away, still holding Abby's arm. "NO! We will get you back for this, ghost boy!" She managed to get out before Tucker capped the device with a satisfying click.

"Nice job, Tucker," Sam nodded in approval as she walked up behind him. "Just don't drop it, okay?"

Tucker glared at her. "I haven't done that in months!"

Sam ignored him, instead glancing over at Danny, who returned to human form and slumped against the car.

"Danny?" she asked slowly, walking up to him. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he replied through a sigh.

"No, you're not," Jazz said, peeking over the edge of her window carefully. "Come on, baby bro."

Danny shot her a scowl. "Don't call me that."

"Then tell us what's wrong."

"It's just that…this whole thing was just a bunch of big misunderstandings, and now I have two more enemies that could have been friends."

"And," Jazz prompted, wincing out of her window at the smoking, black dots of paint now all over the front of her car.

"And," Danny looked down, "well…I guess I'm afraid."

Sam and Tucker exchanged glances. "Of what?"

"The future."

For several minutes, Danny sat there in silence as his friends and sister all turned toward him, staring.

'You mean, you're afraid that it'll turn out similar to the one you stopped with Clockwork?" Jazz voiced softly.

Danny answered with a nod.

"I see," she whispered with a nod.

"Danny," Sam stepped toward him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Do you remember what I said before? When you had those gloves on, and Vlad told you to kill us?"

Danny cringed. "Thanks for the reminder."

"No, seriously," the Goth said, putting her hands on her hips. "I said that your choices make you who you are, and you chose to be good. As long as you choose to be good, you can overcome any evil inside of you, no matter how hard it gets."

"Besides," Tucker stepped forward with a smile, "only your closest friends can betray you, and it won't happen again if we can help it."

As his friends watched him intently, Danny couldn't help but smile at their words.

"Thanks, guys."

"Wait," Sam looked from one boy to the other. "How did you know, Tucker?"

"Oh, Danny called me this morning," he shrugged. "Told me everything and that he had to come talk to you. That's why I was on my way here…and I wasn't sure how you'd…er…" he glanced at the Goth, who raised her eyebrow, "react." With a hesitant smile at Sam's thoughtful frown, he continued. "That's why I wasn't looking where I was going…er…and I had my headphones in so I couldn't hear anything…"

With a shake of her head Sam rolled her eyes and turned to Danny. "So," she said, taking the thermos from Tucker and holding it out to the other boy. "Let's go put these two back in the Ghost Zone."

"And then, who's up for video games?" Danny asked with a smile.

"Excellent!" Tucker immediately perked up, giving Danny a high five.

"Me!" Sam grinned.

Jazz only sighed and started the car as they hopped into the back seat.

XOXOXOXOX

THIS IS NOT THE LAST CHAPTER! THERE IS STILL AN EPILOGUE TO COME! With that bared in mind, please thank my wonderful beta reader for getting the chapter back to me:D I'm hopefully sending the last chappie off today.

Thank you again to all my wonderful readers:hug: You guys rock. You jsut do.


	20. Epilogue

"Danny!" The black-haired boy turned at the sound of his name to see Sam jogging toward him along the busy hall. "Where were you this morning?"

Danny held up his Fenton Thermos with a sigh. "Box Ghost."

"Oh," Sam chuckled.

"Yeah," her best friend agreed with a wistful nod. "Too bad we don't have the same class next," he added as an afterthought. "Then-" He stopped as they rounded a corner, almost running into Paulina and her usual mob of followers. They stared at each other for several seconds before the Latina regained her composure.

"You two losers are back together?"

Danny and Sam both bristled at the comment. "We're NOT together!"

The popular girl brushed off the comment with a roll of her eyes. "Save anyone recently?" she asked with a cruel, mischievous tone.

"Actually, yeah," Sam stepped in before Danny could stutter an answer. "He saved you."

"Psh," Paulina waved her hand, not noticing Danny's confusion. "Like, when did he do that?"

Sam's own mischievous grin crossed her face slowly. "Because we were at the arcade all weekend with Tucker, it distracted me from everything you did on Friday."

"And how is that saving my life?" She asked, taking a step towards Sam, who didn't back down.

"You're still alive, aren't you?" She ignored Danny's surprised blink. "Him doing that stopped me from coming after you. See, he is a hero. Come on, Danny," she reached back and grabbed his arm, dragging him past a steaming Paulina, who didn't seem to know how to answer back. Instead, she turned around with a flip of her dark hair and walked into the main hall, her followers trailing after uncertainly.

"That wasn't like you, Sam," Danny said slowly once they'd gotten out of hearing range.

She looked down and slowed her pace slightly. "I'm just sick of them making fun of you like that when you really have saved their lives more times than we can count. I guess I've been acting different lately too…and I'm sorry."

"I'm the clumsy one that's always putting everyone in danger when I don't mean to, and you're the one apologizing?" Danny asked with a chuckle.

At his comment, she rounded on him, her eyes narrowing. "Danny, you are a hero, okay? You put everyone else's life ahead of yours and you risk your own skin to save innocent people _and_ the people who hate your guts. I'm sick of the news reporters and people like Valerie always twisting things around and making you seem so selfish when you're not: sick and tired of it…and I get a little compulsive when I'm angry about something."

"You can honestly say that after what happened?" Danny asked quietly and looked down, a slight blush coloring his cheeks. "Thanks."

Sam shrugged with her own blush and turned to walk back down the hall.

"So," she started after a long pause. "Other than the Box Ghost, did you have a ghost-free weekend?"

"Yeah," Danny couldn't help but grin. "Slept in and everything."

"You deserve it," a voice behind them caused them both to jump and whirl around.

"Jazz," Danny breathed, putting a hand over his heart.

Jazz giggled. "Have you reached the epitome of surprise when you can scare a ghost?"

"Not funny, Jazz," he said sulkily.

"You know," Sam interrupted before Jazz could respond. "There's one thing I don't get."

The siblings exchanged a glance. "What's that?" they said at the same time before shooting each other a mock glare.

"Why did you look like you did when Vlad sent those skates? I mean, you didn't look like that ever before, not even with the Freakshow thing."

"You know," Jazz replied, "I've been thinking the same thing, and here's the theory I came up with."

"Uh oh," Danny muttered under his breath.

Jazz ignored him. "When Danny put those wrist guards on, it made a permanent impression on his ecto-signature. It made that side of his personality…well, tangible."

Her brother sighed and looked over at his best friend. "Was I supposed to understand that?"

"So you're saying that they gave him a form to revert to when someone sets off his trigger?" Sam asked.

"I am right here, you know," Danny muttered dryly and leaned against the wall. "You don't have to talk about me like I'm not."

"Sorry," Jazz reached a hand over and ruffled his hair. He slapped it away playfully.

The red head smiled warmly at him. "As long as no one betrays you, you're fine." Danny's look sobered but he nodded sincerely. "Oh, and Danny," she leaned over, putting a hand up to one side of her mouth and whispering loudly, "I'd make it a priority to avoid Dash right now."

"Why?" he asked, a slightly worried tone creeping into his voice.

"Something about the whole team not being able to practice because someone messed with all of their lockers—"

"The itching powder!" Danny cringed.

Sam and Jazz blinked at him. "That's what you were doing when Tucker and I came in?" his sister asked.

Danny nodded, his hands covering his face.

"Next thing that'll happen is everyone will discover my secret again," he groaned, banging his head against the wall.

"Or worse," Jazz commented with a sigh.

"How could something be worse than that?" Danny's head shot up.

Jazz gulped. "Um…a certain billionaire could find out your trigger."

Danny's face turned white as a sheet. "Or worse," he agreed. Looking to be lost in thought, he turned around and started walking towards class again.

"Don't worry, Danny," Sam said hastily, shooting a glare at Jazz, "how could he find out anyways?"

"He has a television, you know," Danny gulped. "He has to know about this weekend, and it's only a matter of time before—"

"Danny," Sam stepped in front of him, stopping his movement. "He can't know what caused it unless one of us tells him, and he couldn't torture it out of us. Not even Tucker."

"Besides," Jazz stepped in, "even if he does find out, how could he possibly convince one of us to betray you again? Not gonna happen."

Danny stopped and looked at them gratefully. "Thanks guys," he smiled just as the bell rang.

"Aw crap," all three of them said at the same time and with a mutual nod, dashed off towards their respective classes.

Meanwhile….

The warm breeze couldn't touch the perpetual cold that seemed to hang constantly around Mr. Master's recently rebuilt mansion.

He liked the location of his new office better than the old one. A floor higher, it looked over a great deal more of the landscape on the shadowed side of the small hill it had been erected on. The view was spectacular.

He stared out of the window from his place behind a rather expensive looking, mahogany desk. "You were supposed to get close to him, and earn his trust, even if only for a short while. Did you succeed?" his sultry voice drifted from behind his tall-backed, red, velvet chair.

"Yes, sir," came the short reply.

Vlad couldn't suppress a smile. "Are you aware of what happened in Amity Park this weekend as well?"

"Yes, sir."

"And the price for your services? The usual?"

A hesitation. That surprised him. "No, sir."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Very well, what then?" Another hesitation. What exactly _had_ happened?

"When you use this information-." he turned at the sound in her voice and faced the two nearly identical ghosts standing in the room. "Tell him we're even."

"Done," he said, an evil grin crossing his face. "Please, explain." He had a feeling he was going to enjoy this.

_The End_

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* * *

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I wasn't kidding when I said that all of the anti-climaticness of the story would be well worth this ending. /./sees people with chainsaws coming after her/./ Um...I think I'm going to go now...AAAAAAA!" /./dashes away/./


End file.
